chapter 1 -INTRODUCTION
nature of apologetics
1 the science of christian apologetics is the systematic defense of the christian religion. it is systematic in that it follows a definite, logical and chronological order of argument in demonstrating the reasonable basis of christianity. it is a defense, not in the sense that it 'apologizes' for any weakness of inconsistency, but in that it explains why christianity is the true religion of God.
there are many different names for christian apologetics, but they are all the same in meaning and are merely synonyms for the title given to this textbook.
the science is called Fundamental Theology because it is the rational foundation upon which doctrinal theology is built.
it is called the Evidences of Religion because it investigates all the testimonies and it questions all the witnesses that influence human beings to accept christianity.
it is called Christian origins because it relates historically the beginnings and growth of the christian religion.
finally, it is also called Propaedeutics of Theology, which means the body of principles introductory to the science of theology.
from the philosophical point of view there is an apologetics for every science worthy of the name. a body of human knowledge, unified in a separate category, cannot gain acceptance by intelligent men unless there is also an explanation telling how it came into existence and what its purpose is. that is true of every science and it is the reason why colleges provide introductory courses prior to teaching of the science proper.
2 scope of Apologetics
thus christian apologetics is distinguished from any other introductory study by the subject to which it leads. that subject is the definite supernatural religion founded by Jesus Christ, preserved and expounded in the modern world by the organization. he etablished. specifically, then, Apologetics leads up to two objectives:
the teachings of Christ and the Church of Christ.
it removes the obstacles and explains the positive progress on the road to these objectives into the study of religion itself.
3 Preliminary Assumptions
4 at the present time it is far more difficult than it was at the time of the Apostles to present the truths which are contained in Apologetics. in the early church the proponents of christianity would meet people who acknowledged at least some common intellectual equipment with which discussion could begin. even the pagan admitted certain principles of reasoning which could form the basis of an argument...many outside the catholic religion...look with some disdain upon catholics who refuse to acknowledge the arguments of unreason. the possibility of converting such people is very small. discouragement and sometimes astonishment, comes to the student of a catholic university after he has spoken with a person of this kind. the student finds that all the arguments that appeared so acceptable and so reasonable to him simply do not make a dent on the mentality of his questioner.
it is true that we must accept certain preliminary facts even before we can begin the study of christian apologetics. but these are the same premises that ust be assumed in any science. for example,
we must admit
a. our own existence...
b. we are able to know truth and
that there is a difference between the true and the false.
c. absolute truth exists.
d. the testimony of human beings,in many cases at least, is quite valid for the acceptance of that truth.
these postulates of which we speak are really the first principles of knowledge.
they must be taken for granted, even by those who deny them.
even the so called 'first principles' which are established in the field of natural science are not in themselves first principles of reason but depend upon these latter.
for example, the 'laws' of physics are merely the generalizations of facts perceived by the senses and arrived at by the process of induction. (def 'induce' - to assert or establish (a proposition about a class of phenomena) on the basis of observations on a number of particular facts.)
they are really not principles at all. they are in themselves conclusions which depend upon the validity of the postulates which we have set forth previously.
it is one thing to state that the law of gravity has been attained through sense knowledge, but it is quite another thing to state that such a law cannot be known with certitude because we cannot be sure of our ability to know truth.
finally, since in everyday experience we do not hesitate to use the testimony of others for accepting facts, we must admit that such human testimony can be proved,
that it can be tried,
that it can be accepted.
opposing theories
theoretically speaking, the existence of the adversaries to the catholic religion need not disturb the faithful followers of Christ. but practically...the notions of these adversaries
5 have spread so widely that they have begun to infiltrate...
the ideas of AGNOSTICISM, NATURALISM and INDIVIDUALISM have presented many difficulties to sincere people who are seeking the truth in any field and they are indeed potent enemies in this all-important field and they are indeed potent enemies in this all important field of religion.
AGNOSTICISM is the bleating protest of the shallow mind, the pseudo-intellectual of today. it is not a novel or original protest, although every youthful agnostic acts as though he has made a clever discovery. it goes back far into the history of thought. there have always been doubters and there always will be people who question the evidence of their own senses and of their own minds as well as the evidence presented by others. Ag is the systematic DISBELIEF IN ABSOLUTE TRUTH. Ag seem to maintain that since people have been fooled too often they are always fooled...it develops an all inclusive doubt which refuses to accept not only the principles of reason but even the ordinary everyday perception of the senses. in its ultimate conclusion it writes finis to human knowledge and to the possibility of obtaining human knowledge.
the second modern error may be called intellectual INDIVIDUALISM. where agnosticism deflates and depreciates the human mind, ind abnormally inflates its capacity. it is full blown license rather than true liberty of thought and action. the individualist wants no shackles placed upon him either by God, by the state or by other human beings. he boasts of a self sufficiency which does not need the church or the dictates of God or even of moral conscience. he maintains that all he needs for a complete control over the forces of nature is sufficient knowledge. according to his theory, the human race is entirely autonomous, free and separate from
6 the nature which is beneath it and from the supernature which is supposedly above it.
NATURALISM is akin to both agnosticism and individualism. in some cases it may be partly agnostic and partly individualistic. the nat is an empiricist or experimentalist who wants to talk only about the things that he can see and measure. he is the loud and ultimate 'scientist' who is the great opponent of the supernatural order because he believes that there is NOTHING ABOVE NATURE, nothing he cannot explain. he is the doctor at Lourdes who personally witnesses the occurrence of miracles and still repudiates the possibility of miracles, because there must be some natural explanation for such things. nat, therefore, is the basic theory of all nonsectarian education. unfortunately, it is also the habit of thought of the self-styled practical man of the street.
ways of obtaining knowledge
leaving aside for the moment these modern aberrations, let us see what technique we ourselves must use in achieving definite knowledge of the body of facts we are studying. EXPERIENCE, REASON and TESTIMONY are the three common ways of obtaining this knowledge we seek.
experience in general is of two kinds.
SENSE experience gives us knowledge of the ordinary objects with which we are in contact in our daily life. when a person burns himself he knows quite definitely that there are objects which can burn him. there can really be not doubt about a fact of this kind. ultimately, of course, the senses are the avenues through which all our knowledge comes. INTELLECTUAL experience, on the other hand, is a means of certain knowledge because it is our actual recall of and reflection upon, the object of our experience. we are able not only to really that which has come to us from our senses, but also to make the association of various past experiences. we are, indeed, sometimes led to false conclusions in recalling the past. but there
7 are still other ways by which we can check this knowledge gained from intellectual experience.
another medium of human knowledge is our faculty of REASONING. unfortunately, most men do not use this ability often nor do they use it well. thinking or reasoning is one of the hardest tasks a human being is called upon to perform. the proper use of this intellectual faculty demands practice and long training and it cannot be adequately replaced by other experiences, such as feelings or assumptions in general or faith. whether he admits it or not, the social scientist is using reason when he makes certain deductions from his generalization of facts. the biologist is using it when he makes the comparison between the circulatory system of an animal and that of man. even the biological evolutionist uses it after he has convinced himself that his assumptions are correct and wishes to pursue his study further.
the third means of attaining certain knowledge is that of TESTIMONY. the number of people who deny the validity of this method of knowledge is astonishingly large. they themselves are surprised when you point out that they too must rely to a tremendous extent upon the testimony of other human beings for the facts which they believe. they are astonished when you assert that this same human testimony can also be a source of information in the important question of knowing God and religion.
as we shall see, human testimony is valid and acceptable only when those who testify are truthful people and really possess the knowledge of which they speak. some people are deliberate liars, others are very poor observers; and thus from lies and errors there arises a vast body of false assumptions which nonthinking persons readily accept. the presence of these misconceptions, however, does not invalidate the knowledge which we can obtain from the word of truthful, observant people. for example, we can be certain of various historical events or even of occurrences that may be taking place in other parts of the world at this very moment. we hear
8 the reports of radio commentators; we read the stories of newsmen and we assume that they know what they are talking about because they are on the scene and we assume that with their job and their reputation at stake they are unwilling to tell lies. therefore, we have in this instance a good example of faith in the testimony of human beings.
in Apologetics, of course, we use all these three methods of obtaining knowledge, but the emphasis is upon the use of testimony and the use of reason. the student who has become accustomed to the methods employed in mathematics and the physical sciences in general may find it difficult to switch over to the methods used in apologetics. you can measure and weigh material objects, but you cannot measure and weigh God or the supernatural order, for God Himself is immeasurable and imponderable. the mathematician or the physical scientist is liable to give his students the impression that exact calculation and experiment are the only means for obtaining certainty. the least reflection will assure him that certainty can also be obtained in the most important affairs of everyday life, by methods quite different from calculation and experiment.
for example, it is possible to obtain in most cases very definite certainty regarding the decision of a law court. yet the judge and the lawyers, as well as the plaintiff and the complainant, depend almost exclusively upon the spoken word of other human beings. despite all the scientific gadgets now employed by detectives, the ultimate decision depends upon the human understanding and interpretation of the evidence revealed by these mechanical means. similarly, the certainty obtained in the science of apologetics is to be depended upon. it is a conclusion and an interpretation given by witnesses whose words are to be found frequently enough in true and authentic documents. we can be at least as certain of these truths as we are certain of the decisions arrived at in a court of law.
9 principal conclusions
the main conclusion of this study of agologetics is that the Catholic Church (note: not the church, rather the Living Word, Jesus Christ (I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, john 14.6) the Living Word and the Bible ( Thy Word is Truth, john 17. 17) the written Word of God) speaks with the authority of God. this conclusion depends upon the fact that God has given His word to that effect. how can we be certain that it is God's word to that effect. how can we be certain that it is God's word and that we can know it? God has spoken to us through MIRACLES and PROPHECIES, both of which are, in their turn, attested by reliable, living, human beings. after properly checking each step in the argument leading to that main conclusion, we can be positive that the testimony we employ is a true means of arriving at the facts. the proofs which we use in apologetics arrive at definite conclusions. to question these proofs would be to question one's own reason, one's own ability to know.
likewise the truths at which we arrive in apologetics are fully valid and certain. they are conclusions upon which we can depend. to question them would be to question the very basis of our ability to know. but these truths by no means force people to accept christianity. if a person is prejudiced, as many are, he simply will not accept what has been brought to him by the use of experience, reason and testimony. prejudice means a judgment made before the facts are in; and once a person is settled in his prejudice, there is little one can do to convince him. one the other hand, some people are incapable of understanding, for they do not wish or are not able to accept the facts even when these facts are presented in a most forceful manner. therefore, prejudiced and ignorant people will not accept the conclusions which we know to be inescapable and irrefutable truths. the proofs of apologetics will make absolutely no impression upon them, for human beings cannot be coerced into accepting truth. (foot.- this is evident from the fact that the orthodox explanation of faith calls for a 'free, intellectual assent', and thus we see that both the intellect and the will must be employed. while no one can be forced to believe against his will or be expected to accept unreasonable teachings, he certainly can give a voluntary intellectual assent to truths (ie. mysteries) which are not fully comprehensible to his mind.
Chapter 2 - THE EXISTENCE AND THE NATURE OF GOD
11 if God does not exist, apologetics is a waste of time, religion a stupidity and the church of Christ a folly. by the use of the natural sources and methods of human science we can learn the fact that God exists and we can be perfectly certain that that fact is true.
the fundamental step, therefore, in any religious question, is to recognize the fact of God's existence. without this acknowledgement the discussion cannot begin. the fundamental difficulty, however, as we have already suggested, is that people wish to see God the same way that they see their fellow man. can they recognize God as a person? and by that they mean: can they see, touch, feel God as they can any other human person? ...
three direct methods of proof
12 there is a definite philosophic method which has been used for many centuries in proving the existence of God from pure reason. in it there are many arguments, the most convincing of which can be reduced to three. these three direct arguments prove the existence of God by means of: first, the principle of CAUSALITY; second, the existence of ORDER AND PURPOSE in the world; and the third , the EXISTENCE OF DEPENDENT BEINGS. we shall consider these direct arguments in that order and then supply additional arguments proving that fact indirectly from the conscience of human beings and from history.
the principle of causality, simply stated, says that everything that begins to exist must have an efficient cause. in other words, unless an object is absolutely necessary and has the explanation of its own existence within itself, it must have a proportionate physical, efficient cause. despite the curious mental vagaries of many theorists and professors, the fact of causality is known in the everyday life of all human beings. a farmer, for example, readily recognizes causality in the admission that unless he plants the seed in the springtime he will not reap the harvest in the autumn. the architect who plans a new edifice knows that he himself is the cause of the blue print he makes. the builder who erects the edifice would object strenuously to the assertion that any other contractor was responsible for this building. and so in all the other concerns of human living we do recognize that cause and effect are always in operation, some things causing others and some maintaining them in existence.
let us see now whether it is necessary for us to arrive at an ultimate efficient cause which is the beginning of all other
13 causes and, therefore, of all effects in the world. if we consider the seed planted by the farmer we note that it comes from a previous plant of the same kind. that plant, in turn, comes from another seed and so on back to what might be termed the first seed. so also in the successive generations of human beings. we are the effect, materially at least, of our parents. we must trace back human ancestry, ultimately, to some first human parents. whether we are speaking of human beings or of nonhuman objects, such as seed, we must ask whether they are the effect of another cause or whether they caused themselves. if for the sake of argument we should admit biological evolution, we must still find the original being from which the others evolved.
can we dispense with an original being that began to exist and just go back further and further without any beginning? this would be to say that everything always was and nothing ever began. but such an infinite series of cause and effects is absurd and unthinkable, for it gives us, not a satisfying, sufficient, and ultimate explanation, but merely an infinite, eternal insufficiency. whatever else it was that first began to exist, it was the effect of the FIRST CAUSE. whatever else it is that started the whole series of cause and effect, it certainly does exist and it contains within itself the explanation of all existence. in apologetics we call this first cause God.
all the phenomena of nature are handy evidences that the principle of causality is really valid, always in operation and is understood even by the unsophisticated. if a boy is struck by a rock, he knows that the rock was thrown by someone else. he may even ask who threw it. if a soldier sees shells falling all around him, he does not for a moment question the fact that gunners, enemy or otherwise, are the cause of those shells being in his own vicinity.
savages still think of lightning and thunder as a visitation of the gods. scientists scoff at them and explain with great erudition how the laws of nature operate and how thunder and lightning really occur. but the mere observation of and
14 generalization from, these facts do not constitute a satisfactory answer. in acknowledging a divine cause the savage is, perhaps, thinking more deeply and more scientifically than the scientist himself. with all the explanations of moisture, condensation and air currents, we must still conclude that these things in themselves are effects and that their ultimate explanation requires an existing God.
the final and satisfying explanation of causality can be found only when we reach some cause that is not an effect, a cause which does not recieve its existence from something else. we call it the first cause because all things in nature necessarily depend upon it for their existence. if the cause we have discovered is not expanatory of itself, then we must still look for a further one. ultimately we arrive at that first cause, which is God.
the second argument for the existence of God is, for many people, even more convincing. this is the argument from order and purpose in the world. it is intellectually dishonest to object to the existence of complicated design as a proof of the existence of a designer. we constantly observe that an automobile, an airplane, any of the modern inventions, are of very intricate and complicated patterns. only a food would deny that the various co-ordinated sections of these patterns were designed by a human being or by a group of human beings working cooperatively. consider the problems in the construction of a modern airplane, from the mind of its designer through the blueprint stage, through the factory and testing ground until it is considered a workable machine. each part has its definite function. the object of planners has been to remove superfluity, to obtain more efficiency in every machine for use. all of this points to the obvious fact that there is a mind behind the machine.
by a parallel type of reasoning we see that the whole universe has a definite design, that the days follow each other
15 because the planets move and rotate with a certain regularity. we can depend upon their operation to such an extent that we are able to foretell some of the future events in the physical universe even years in advance.
any particular instance of deign within the whole universe will bring out our observation more clearly. for example, the human body is considered a very efficient machine by doctors who do not wish to state anything further than that which their senses can observe. the body is so arranged that the human being can fulfill his various physical, intellectual and moral functions in a very appropriate manner. the question is not whether the body is perfect of whether it can be improved upon, but whether it in itself definitely shows the existence of someone who must have thought beforehand what the body was to perform. doctors are not always successful in curing their patients, but from long experience they have noted that the human body functions in an orderly and purposeful manner and they can arrange their diagnoses and prescriptions accordingly.
now the main question in our search here is whether or not these orderly arranged objects in the world can account for themselves or whether it is necessary to look for an arranger and designer outside of them. if you can discover the person who designed the human body, then you have either God Himself of someone who was designed by God. ultimately, the only explanation of purpose and order and design is an intelligent God who is responsible for them.
thus we see that the argument from purpose of design brings us a step closer to God. it gives us also a slightly different aspect of God beyond the mere fact of His existence. by
16 a very clear process of reasoning we must come to the same conclusion at which we arrive in other examples. if we are forced to admit that there is an intelligent designer responsible for the intricacies of the airplane, we must also admit that there is an intelligent designer behind the order and beauty of the universal design.
this first designer must necessarily be a PERSON, that is, an individual with intellectual and volitional powers. he must have an intellect in order to know that which he wants to do, and, secondly, he must have a will because we see that his plan has actually been put into operation.
there is a further proof subsidiary to the previous one and also necessary for it and that is the proof of the existence of a lawgiver in nature. the very basis of all the conclusions of physical sciences is the fact that the whole material universe is obedient to law. there is a certain mode of action in each individual object and that mode of action can be depended upon. whether this is called the natural law, or merely the 'statistical average of events', the truth remains that all things are governed by the manner in which they act. this is true in both animate and inanimate nature.
for example, astronomers long ago discovered the regularity of the movements of celestial bodies. the solar system is so exactly timed that even seemingly irregular occurrences, such as eclipses and the appearance of comets, can be predicted with certainty. again, the chemist can be sure that the aterial with which he works is going to react with other materials in a definite way. frequently his life depends upon this knowledge. finally, the laws of sound, heat, light and electricity, and so forth, work with such accuracy that the physicist can calculate results with precision.
in the sphere of animate creatures the same kinds of activity
Friday, September 30, 2016
Thursday, September 29, 2016
9.29.2016 Finney on TRUE AND FALSE REPENTANCE
TRUE AND FALSE REPENTANCE -
For GODLY SORROW produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted ('not to be repented of, KJV); but the sorrow of the world produces death. for observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner:
WHAT DILIGENCE IT PRODUCED IN YOU,
WHAT CLEARING OF YOURSELVES,
WHAT INDIGNATION,
WHAT FEAR,
WHAT VEHEMENT DESIRE,
WHAT ZEAL,
WHAT VINDICATION!
in all things you proved yourselves to e clear in this matter. II corinthians 7.10-11
true repentance involves a change of opinion about sin, followed by a corresponding change of feeling about sin. feeling is the result of thought. when this change of opinion produces a corresponding change of feeling, if the opinion is right and the feeling corresponds, this is true repentance. godly sorrow, which God requir3es, must spring from His views of sin.
to one who truly repents, sin looks very different from what it does to him who has not repented. instead of looking desirable or fascinating, it looks odious and detestable. he is astonished that he ever could have desired such a thing. impenitent sinners may look at sin and see that it will ruin them because God will punish them for it, but it still appears in itself desirable. they love it. if it could end in happiness, they would never think of abandoning their sin.
307 but one who truly repents looks at his own conduct as perfectly hateful. he looks back and exclaims, 'how detestable and worthy of hell my sin was!'
sinners don't see why God threatens sin with such terrible punishment. they love it so much that they cannot see why God thinks it is worthy of everlasting judgment. however, when sinners are strongly convicted, they see sin in the same as a christian does. then all they need is a corresponding change in feeling to be saved.
many sinners reflect on their relationship to God and know that they deserve eternal death, but their hearts don't agree with God's opinions. this is the case with the demons and wicked spirits in hell. a change of opinion is indispensable to true repentance and always precedes it. there may e a change of opinion without repentance, but no genuine repentance occurs without a change of opinion.
the unsaved sinner thinks it utterly incredible that sin deserves everlasting death. he may be fully changed, however, to see that sin injures himself and everybody else and that there is no remedy but universal abstinence. even the devil knows this is true.
the word rendered 'repentance' implies a change of opinion in regard to the just outcome of sin. the careless sinner has almost no right ideas about the just punishment of sin. even if he admits in theory that sin deserves eternal death, he does not believe it. if he believed it, it would be impossible for him to remain a careless sinner. he is deceived if he supposes that he honestly holds the opinion that sin deserves the wrath of God forever.
the truly awakened and convicted sinner sees clearly that sin deserves everlasting punishment from God. to him it is simply a matter of fact.
in true repentance there must be a corresponding change of feeling. this is a change of feeling regarding sin in its nature, its
308 functions, its tendencies and its outcome. the individual who truly repents not only sees sin as detestable, vile and worthy of abhorrence, but he also hates it in his heart. a person may see sin to be hurtful and abominable ans still love, it desire it and cling to it. but when he truly repents, he wholeheartedly abhors and renounces it.
this is the source of those tears of sorrow that sometimes break out when christians see sin in its true nature. when a believer views sin in relation to God, he feels like weeping. fountains of sorrow gush forth and he wants to get down on his face and pour out a flood of tears over his sin.
when a believer views sin in its tendencies, it awakens a burning desire to stop it and save people from it. his heart is set on fire, and he prays with all his might to pull sinners out of hell and save them from the awful consequences of sin. it is as if he saw all the people taking a deadly poison. he lifts up his voice and screams, 'Beware!
he has an intellectual conviction that sin deserves everlasting punishment and is amazed that God can forgive him. instead of thinking it severe or unkind that sinners are sent to hell, he is full of adoring wonder that he is not sent to hell himself. and when he thinks of such a sinner being saved, he feels a sense of gratitude unlike any he has ever known.
if your repentance is genuine, you have a conscious change of views and feelings in regard to sin.
can you say this?
do you know that there has been a change in you and that 'old things have passed away' and 'all things have become new'? II corinthians 5.17
where repentance is genuine, the prevailing tendency to repeat sin is gone. it you have truly repented, you do not now love sin. you do not now abstain from it through fear or to avoid punishment, but because you hate it. look at the sins you used to practice.
how do they appear to you?
do they look pleasant and would you really love to practice them again if you dared?
if you do still have the disposition to sin, you are only covicted.
your opinions of sin may have been changed,
but if the love of that sin remains,
you are still an impenitent sinner.
the Scripture says, 'Godly sorrow produces repentance.'
godly sorrow produces a reformation of conduct.
other wise, it is like
309 saying that repentance produces repentance.
but repentance must be a change of mind that produces a change of conduct and ends in salvation.
have you forsaken your sins?
or are you still practicing them?
if so, you are still a sinner.
you may have changed your mind, but if you have not changed your conduct, you have no godly repentance.
genuine repentance leads to confession and restitution.
the thief has not repented while he keeps the money he stole.
he may have conviction but no repentance.
if he had truly repented, hwe would go and give back the money.
if you have cheated anyone and to not restore what you have taken,
or if you have injured anyone and do not undo the wrong,
you have not truly repented.
true repentance is a permanent change of character and conduct. the text verse says it is repentance 'not to be repented of''. II corinthians 7.10 KJV true repentance is so deep and fundamental tghat the man never changes back again. people often quote the verse as if it read 'repentance that does not NEED to be repented of'. but it says, 'NOT to be repented of'...-a repentance so thorough that there is no going back. the love of sin is totally abandoned. any individual who has truly repented has changed his views and feelings and will not change back to the love of sin. the truly penitent sinner exercises feelings of which he will never repent - 'leading to salvation'. the very reason this repentance ends in salvation is that it will not be repented of.
false repentance is the sorrow of the world - sorrow for sin arising from worldly considerations and motive connected with the present life. at most, false repentance has regard for the individual's own happiness in a future world and has no regard for the true nature of sin.
false repentance is not founded on a change of opinion like true repentance. a person may see the evil consequences of sin from a worldly point of view and it may fill him with anxiety. he may see that it will greatly affect his character or endanger his life.
310 secrets were found out, he would be disgraced - this may fill him with fear and distress. people often have this kind of sorrow when some worldly consideration is at the bottom of it.
selfishness is at the root of false repentance.
it may be a strong feeling of regret in the mind of the individual. he sees the evil consequences of his actions and the sight of them makes him miserable or exposes him to the wrath of God. he is concerned that sin may injure his family, his friends, or himself, in time or in eternity. all this is pure selfishness.
he may feel remorse of conscience - biting, consuming remorse - and no true repentance. it may extend to deep and dreadful fear of the wrath of god and the pains of hell but be purely selfish. all the while there may be no abhorrence of sin and no feelings of the heart convicted of the INFINITE evil of sin.
false repentance leaves the feelings unchanged and the disposition to sin in the heart unbroken and unsubdued. the feelings about the nature of sin are not changed and the individual still feels a desire to sin. he abstains from it -not from abhorrence of it, but from the dread of its consequences.
the individual who has exercised true repentance is willing to admit that he has repented and that he was a sinner. he who falsely repents resorts to excuses and lying to cover his sins and is ashamed of his repentance. he will cover up his sins by a thousand apologies and excuses, trying to smooth them over and diminish their enormity. if he speaks of his past conduct, he always does it in the softest and most favorable terms.
false repentance leads to death. it makes people commit one sin to cover up another. instead of that openhearted breaking forth of humility and frankness, you see a halfhearted confession that confesses nothing.
are you ashamed to have anyone talk with you about your sins? if so, then your sorrow is only a worldly sorrow. often sinners
311 avoid conversation about their sins yet call themselves anxious inquirers, expecting to become christians. the same kind of sorrow is found in hell. no doubt, all those wretched inhabitants of the pit wish to get away from the eyes of God. no such sorrow is found among the saints in heaven.
open, genuine sorrow is consistent with true happiness. the saints are happy yet have a deep, undisguised remorse for sin. but this worldly sorrow is ashamed of itself and is mean and miserable - its end is death.
the change produced by worldly sorrow extends only to those things of which the individual has been strongly convicted. the heart is not changed. you will see him avoid only those obvious sins about which he has been counseled.
observe a young convert. if he is deceived, you will find only a partial change in his conduct. he is reformed in certain things, but he continues to practice many wrong things. if you become intimately acquainted with him, you will find him strict and quick-sighted in regard to certain things but far from manifesting a christian spirit in regard to all sin.
ordinarily, the change produced by false repentance is temporary even in those things that are reformed. the individual is continually relapsing into ole sins. the DISPOSITION to sin is not gone -only checked and restrained by fear. as soon as he has a hope, is attending church and gets bolstered up so that his fears are relieved, you will see him gradually returning to his old sins.
this was the difficulty with the house of Israel that made them constantly return to idolatry and other sins. they had only worldly sorrow. you see it everywhere in the church. individuals are reformed for a time and are taken into a congregation, but then they relapse into their old sins. they call it 'getting cold' or backsliding, but the truth is, they always loved sin.
this is the foundation of all those flashes and starts in religion that you see so much of. people are awakened and convicted but soon they settle down in false security and away they go. perhaps they may keep their guard and won't be turned out of church; but if
312 the foundations of sin are not broken up, they will return to their old ways.
a true convert's most obsessive sins before conversion are the furthest from him now. he is least likely to fall into his old besetting sin because he abhors it the most. but if a convert is deceived and worldly minded, he always tends toward the same sins. the fountain of sin is not broken up. he has not purged iniquity from his heart but has regarded sin in his heart the whole time.
the change produced by false repentance is not only partial and temporary, it is also forced and constrained. the reformation of one who has true repentance is from the heart. in him the Bible promise is fulfilled. he actually finds that wisdom's 'ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace. proverbs 3.17 he experiences that the savior's yoke is easy and His burden is light. matthew 11.30 he has felt that God's commandments are not burdensome by joyous. I john 5.3 'more to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. psalm 19.10
but this spurious king of repentance is very different: it is a legal repentance, resulting from fear and not love. selfish repentance is anything but a free, voluntary change from sin to obedience.if you have this kind of repentance, you will find that you are conscious that you abstain from sin not because you hate it, but from other considerations. you are more motivated by forbiddings of conscience or the fear that you will lose your soul, your hope or your character than by abhorrence of sin or love of God.
such people always excuse sin, evade duty and think there is no great harm in doing as they do. they love their sins. if there is not some scriptural command of God that they dare not resist, they will continue in sin.
this is not so with true repentance. if a thing seems contrary to the great law of love, the person who has true repentance will hate it and avoid it whether he has a direct command from God concerning it
313 or not. he sees it is contrary to the law of benevolence and he would no more do it than he would blaspheme God, steal or commit any other abomination. the man who has true repentance does not need a 'Thus says the Lord' to keep him from oppressing his fellowmen.
false repentance leads to self-righteousness. and individual may know that Jesus Christ is the only Savior of sinners and may profess to believe in and rely on Him alone for salvation. but he is actually placing ten times more reliance on his reformation than on Jesus Christ for his salvation. and if he would watch his own heart, he would know it. he may say he expects salvation by Christ, but he is really building a righteousness of his own.
he supposes his worldly sorrow to be true repentance and he trusts in it. he takes it for granted that Jesus will save him because he has had sorrow on account of his sins, although he is not conscious that he has never felt any resting in Christ. he felt sorrow than got relief and felt better. now he expects to be saved by Christ, when his very consciousness will teach him that he has never relied on Him.
the individual who has this kind of sorrow becomes harder in heart in proportion to the number of times that he exercises such sorrow. if he has strong emotions of conviction but his heart is not broken, the fountains of feeling dry up and his heart is more difficult to reach.
a real christian who had truly repented is different. every time you bring the truth to him he becomes more easily affected, excited and broken under God's blessed Word. his heart gets into the habit of going along with the convictions of his understanding and he becomes as teachable as a little child.
churches - or individual members - who have only world-ly repentance pass through a revival, are awakened and then grow cold again. let this process be repeated and you will find them more and more difficult to arouse. soon they become as hard as millstone and nothing can ever rally them to a revival again.
314 on the other hand, some churches and individuals experience true repentance. let them go through successive revivals and you will find them growing more and more tender. when they hear the trumpet blow for a revival, they glow instantly and are ready for the work.
the distinction between true and false repentance is as broad as between light and darkness. the principle is illustrated in sinners, who, after passing through repeated revivals, will scoff and criticize. although the heavens hang with clouds of mercy over their heads, they reject it. if they don't have true repentance, every fresh excitement hardens the heart and makes them more difficult to be reached by the truth.
some people are thrown into distress whenever the truth is flashed upon their minds. they may not have as much conviction as the real christian, but the real christian is filled with peace at the very time his tears are flowing from conviction of sin. and each repeated season of conviction makes him more and more watchful, tender and careful, until his conscience becomes so sensitive that the very appearance of evil will offend it. but the other kind of sorrow, which does not lead to true renunciation of sin, leaves the heart harder than before and soon sears the conscience like a hot iron. I timothy 4.2
false repentance is sure to be repented of. you will soon find these people becoming ashamed of the deep feelings that they had. they do not want to speak of them and if they do talk of them, it is always lightly and coldly. perhaps they bustled about during the time of revival and appeared as busy as anybody. very likely they were among the extremes in everything that was done. but now the revival is over and you find them opposed to new measures, changing back and ashamed of their zeal. in fact, they repent of their repentance!
after they have joined a church, they will be ashamed of their public repentance. when the height of the revival has gone by, they will begin to talk about being 'too enthusiastic' and the necessity of being more sober and consistent.
you sometimes find people who profess to be converted in a revival turning against the very measure, means and doctrines by
315 which they profess to have been converted. not so with the true christian. he is never ashamed of his repentance. the last thing he would ever think of being ashamed of is the excitement he felt in a revival.
many people have mistaken conviction for conversion and the sorrow of the world for that godly sorrow that 'worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of' (II cor. 7.10KJV) i am convinced, after years of observation, that this is the true reason for the present deplorable state of the church all over the land.
many sinners think it is a great trial to give up their ungodly companions and their sins. if they had true repentance, they would not think it any cross to give up their sins.
before i came to Christ, i remember what i thought when i first saw young people becoming christians and joining the church. i thought it was a good thing because their souls would be saved and they would get to heaven. but at the time, repentance seemed to be a very sorrowful thing. i never dreamed then that these young people could ever be truly happy.
it is very common for people who know that christianity is good to think they cannot be happy in the church. they do not understand that true repentance leads to an abhorrence of those things that were formerly loved. sinners do not see that when their young friends become true christians, sinful amusements are crucified.
people who experience false repentance do not know what it is the ENJOY christianity. they are not cheerful and happy. they are grieved because they have to withdraw from so many things they love or because they have to give so much money. they are in the fire all the time. instead of rejoicing in every opportunity of self denial and rejoicing in truth, the plain truth distresses them. why? because their hearts do not love to work for God. if they loved to do their duty, every ray of light that broke in upon their minds from heaven would be welcomed and would make them happier.
316 perhaps you think i suppose all true christians are perfect. there is a radical difference between a backslidden christian and a hypocrite who had returned to the world. the hypocrite loves the world and ENJOYS sin when he returns to it. he may have fear, remorse and apprehension about the loss of his character; but, after all, he enjoys sin.
the backslidden christian is different. he leaves his first love, revelation 2.4; then he falls prey to temptation and enters into sin. but he does not love it. it is always bitter to him, and he feels unhappy and homesick. he has, at the time, no love of God to keep him from sin, but he does not love sin. he is unhappy and he feels like a wretch. he is as different from the hypocrite as con be. he can never again ENJOY sin or delight in the pleasures of the world. never again can he drink iniquity lie water. Job 15.16 as long as he continues to wander, he is miserable.
convicted sinners are afraid to pledge themselves to give up their sins. they tell you they can't promise to do it because they are afraid they won't keep the promise. they love sin. the drunkard knows that he loves strong drink. although he may be constrained to abstain from it, he still craves it. likewise, the convicted sinner loves sin and his hold on sin has never been broken - he dares not promise to give it up.
sinners who have worldly sorrow can now see where the difficulty lies and why they are not converted. their intellectual views of sin may be such that if their hearts corresponded, they would be christians. perhaps they think this is true repentance. but if they were truly willing to give up all sin, they would not hesitate to pledge themselves to it and have all the world know that they had done it.
if you are willing to give up sin, you are willing to promise to do it and willing to have it known that you have done it. but if you resist conviction and still love your sins, all you convictions will not help you. they will only sink you deeper in hell for resisting them.
For GODLY SORROW produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted ('not to be repented of, KJV); but the sorrow of the world produces death. for observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner:
WHAT DILIGENCE IT PRODUCED IN YOU,
WHAT CLEARING OF YOURSELVES,
WHAT INDIGNATION,
WHAT FEAR,
WHAT VEHEMENT DESIRE,
WHAT ZEAL,
WHAT VINDICATION!
in all things you proved yourselves to e clear in this matter. II corinthians 7.10-11
true repentance involves a change of opinion about sin, followed by a corresponding change of feeling about sin. feeling is the result of thought. when this change of opinion produces a corresponding change of feeling, if the opinion is right and the feeling corresponds, this is true repentance. godly sorrow, which God requir3es, must spring from His views of sin.
to one who truly repents, sin looks very different from what it does to him who has not repented. instead of looking desirable or fascinating, it looks odious and detestable. he is astonished that he ever could have desired such a thing. impenitent sinners may look at sin and see that it will ruin them because God will punish them for it, but it still appears in itself desirable. they love it. if it could end in happiness, they would never think of abandoning their sin.
307 but one who truly repents looks at his own conduct as perfectly hateful. he looks back and exclaims, 'how detestable and worthy of hell my sin was!'
sinners don't see why God threatens sin with such terrible punishment. they love it so much that they cannot see why God thinks it is worthy of everlasting judgment. however, when sinners are strongly convicted, they see sin in the same as a christian does. then all they need is a corresponding change in feeling to be saved.
many sinners reflect on their relationship to God and know that they deserve eternal death, but their hearts don't agree with God's opinions. this is the case with the demons and wicked spirits in hell. a change of opinion is indispensable to true repentance and always precedes it. there may e a change of opinion without repentance, but no genuine repentance occurs without a change of opinion.
the unsaved sinner thinks it utterly incredible that sin deserves everlasting death. he may be fully changed, however, to see that sin injures himself and everybody else and that there is no remedy but universal abstinence. even the devil knows this is true.
the word rendered 'repentance' implies a change of opinion in regard to the just outcome of sin. the careless sinner has almost no right ideas about the just punishment of sin. even if he admits in theory that sin deserves eternal death, he does not believe it. if he believed it, it would be impossible for him to remain a careless sinner. he is deceived if he supposes that he honestly holds the opinion that sin deserves the wrath of God forever.
the truly awakened and convicted sinner sees clearly that sin deserves everlasting punishment from God. to him it is simply a matter of fact.
in true repentance there must be a corresponding change of feeling. this is a change of feeling regarding sin in its nature, its
308 functions, its tendencies and its outcome. the individual who truly repents not only sees sin as detestable, vile and worthy of abhorrence, but he also hates it in his heart. a person may see sin to be hurtful and abominable ans still love, it desire it and cling to it. but when he truly repents, he wholeheartedly abhors and renounces it.
this is the source of those tears of sorrow that sometimes break out when christians see sin in its true nature. when a believer views sin in relation to God, he feels like weeping. fountains of sorrow gush forth and he wants to get down on his face and pour out a flood of tears over his sin.
when a believer views sin in its tendencies, it awakens a burning desire to stop it and save people from it. his heart is set on fire, and he prays with all his might to pull sinners out of hell and save them from the awful consequences of sin. it is as if he saw all the people taking a deadly poison. he lifts up his voice and screams, 'Beware!
he has an intellectual conviction that sin deserves everlasting punishment and is amazed that God can forgive him. instead of thinking it severe or unkind that sinners are sent to hell, he is full of adoring wonder that he is not sent to hell himself. and when he thinks of such a sinner being saved, he feels a sense of gratitude unlike any he has ever known.
if your repentance is genuine, you have a conscious change of views and feelings in regard to sin.
can you say this?
do you know that there has been a change in you and that 'old things have passed away' and 'all things have become new'? II corinthians 5.17
where repentance is genuine, the prevailing tendency to repeat sin is gone. it you have truly repented, you do not now love sin. you do not now abstain from it through fear or to avoid punishment, but because you hate it. look at the sins you used to practice.
how do they appear to you?
do they look pleasant and would you really love to practice them again if you dared?
if you do still have the disposition to sin, you are only covicted.
your opinions of sin may have been changed,
but if the love of that sin remains,
you are still an impenitent sinner.
the Scripture says, 'Godly sorrow produces repentance.'
godly sorrow produces a reformation of conduct.
other wise, it is like
309 saying that repentance produces repentance.
but repentance must be a change of mind that produces a change of conduct and ends in salvation.
have you forsaken your sins?
or are you still practicing them?
if so, you are still a sinner.
you may have changed your mind, but if you have not changed your conduct, you have no godly repentance.
genuine repentance leads to confession and restitution.
the thief has not repented while he keeps the money he stole.
he may have conviction but no repentance.
if he had truly repented, hwe would go and give back the money.
if you have cheated anyone and to not restore what you have taken,
or if you have injured anyone and do not undo the wrong,
you have not truly repented.
true repentance is a permanent change of character and conduct. the text verse says it is repentance 'not to be repented of''. II corinthians 7.10 KJV true repentance is so deep and fundamental tghat the man never changes back again. people often quote the verse as if it read 'repentance that does not NEED to be repented of'. but it says, 'NOT to be repented of'...-a repentance so thorough that there is no going back. the love of sin is totally abandoned. any individual who has truly repented has changed his views and feelings and will not change back to the love of sin. the truly penitent sinner exercises feelings of which he will never repent - 'leading to salvation'. the very reason this repentance ends in salvation is that it will not be repented of.
false repentance is the sorrow of the world - sorrow for sin arising from worldly considerations and motive connected with the present life. at most, false repentance has regard for the individual's own happiness in a future world and has no regard for the true nature of sin.
false repentance is not founded on a change of opinion like true repentance. a person may see the evil consequences of sin from a worldly point of view and it may fill him with anxiety. he may see that it will greatly affect his character or endanger his life.
310 secrets were found out, he would be disgraced - this may fill him with fear and distress. people often have this kind of sorrow when some worldly consideration is at the bottom of it.
selfishness is at the root of false repentance.
it may be a strong feeling of regret in the mind of the individual. he sees the evil consequences of his actions and the sight of them makes him miserable or exposes him to the wrath of God. he is concerned that sin may injure his family, his friends, or himself, in time or in eternity. all this is pure selfishness.
he may feel remorse of conscience - biting, consuming remorse - and no true repentance. it may extend to deep and dreadful fear of the wrath of god and the pains of hell but be purely selfish. all the while there may be no abhorrence of sin and no feelings of the heart convicted of the INFINITE evil of sin.
false repentance leaves the feelings unchanged and the disposition to sin in the heart unbroken and unsubdued. the feelings about the nature of sin are not changed and the individual still feels a desire to sin. he abstains from it -not from abhorrence of it, but from the dread of its consequences.
the individual who has exercised true repentance is willing to admit that he has repented and that he was a sinner. he who falsely repents resorts to excuses and lying to cover his sins and is ashamed of his repentance. he will cover up his sins by a thousand apologies and excuses, trying to smooth them over and diminish their enormity. if he speaks of his past conduct, he always does it in the softest and most favorable terms.
false repentance leads to death. it makes people commit one sin to cover up another. instead of that openhearted breaking forth of humility and frankness, you see a halfhearted confession that confesses nothing.
are you ashamed to have anyone talk with you about your sins? if so, then your sorrow is only a worldly sorrow. often sinners
311 avoid conversation about their sins yet call themselves anxious inquirers, expecting to become christians. the same kind of sorrow is found in hell. no doubt, all those wretched inhabitants of the pit wish to get away from the eyes of God. no such sorrow is found among the saints in heaven.
open, genuine sorrow is consistent with true happiness. the saints are happy yet have a deep, undisguised remorse for sin. but this worldly sorrow is ashamed of itself and is mean and miserable - its end is death.
the change produced by worldly sorrow extends only to those things of which the individual has been strongly convicted. the heart is not changed. you will see him avoid only those obvious sins about which he has been counseled.
observe a young convert. if he is deceived, you will find only a partial change in his conduct. he is reformed in certain things, but he continues to practice many wrong things. if you become intimately acquainted with him, you will find him strict and quick-sighted in regard to certain things but far from manifesting a christian spirit in regard to all sin.
ordinarily, the change produced by false repentance is temporary even in those things that are reformed. the individual is continually relapsing into ole sins. the DISPOSITION to sin is not gone -only checked and restrained by fear. as soon as he has a hope, is attending church and gets bolstered up so that his fears are relieved, you will see him gradually returning to his old sins.
this was the difficulty with the house of Israel that made them constantly return to idolatry and other sins. they had only worldly sorrow. you see it everywhere in the church. individuals are reformed for a time and are taken into a congregation, but then they relapse into their old sins. they call it 'getting cold' or backsliding, but the truth is, they always loved sin.
this is the foundation of all those flashes and starts in religion that you see so much of. people are awakened and convicted but soon they settle down in false security and away they go. perhaps they may keep their guard and won't be turned out of church; but if
312 the foundations of sin are not broken up, they will return to their old ways.
a true convert's most obsessive sins before conversion are the furthest from him now. he is least likely to fall into his old besetting sin because he abhors it the most. but if a convert is deceived and worldly minded, he always tends toward the same sins. the fountain of sin is not broken up. he has not purged iniquity from his heart but has regarded sin in his heart the whole time.
the change produced by false repentance is not only partial and temporary, it is also forced and constrained. the reformation of one who has true repentance is from the heart. in him the Bible promise is fulfilled. he actually finds that wisdom's 'ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace. proverbs 3.17 he experiences that the savior's yoke is easy and His burden is light. matthew 11.30 he has felt that God's commandments are not burdensome by joyous. I john 5.3 'more to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. psalm 19.10
but this spurious king of repentance is very different: it is a legal repentance, resulting from fear and not love. selfish repentance is anything but a free, voluntary change from sin to obedience.if you have this kind of repentance, you will find that you are conscious that you abstain from sin not because you hate it, but from other considerations. you are more motivated by forbiddings of conscience or the fear that you will lose your soul, your hope or your character than by abhorrence of sin or love of God.
such people always excuse sin, evade duty and think there is no great harm in doing as they do. they love their sins. if there is not some scriptural command of God that they dare not resist, they will continue in sin.
this is not so with true repentance. if a thing seems contrary to the great law of love, the person who has true repentance will hate it and avoid it whether he has a direct command from God concerning it
313 or not. he sees it is contrary to the law of benevolence and he would no more do it than he would blaspheme God, steal or commit any other abomination. the man who has true repentance does not need a 'Thus says the Lord' to keep him from oppressing his fellowmen.
false repentance leads to self-righteousness. and individual may know that Jesus Christ is the only Savior of sinners and may profess to believe in and rely on Him alone for salvation. but he is actually placing ten times more reliance on his reformation than on Jesus Christ for his salvation. and if he would watch his own heart, he would know it. he may say he expects salvation by Christ, but he is really building a righteousness of his own.
he supposes his worldly sorrow to be true repentance and he trusts in it. he takes it for granted that Jesus will save him because he has had sorrow on account of his sins, although he is not conscious that he has never felt any resting in Christ. he felt sorrow than got relief and felt better. now he expects to be saved by Christ, when his very consciousness will teach him that he has never relied on Him.
the individual who has this kind of sorrow becomes harder in heart in proportion to the number of times that he exercises such sorrow. if he has strong emotions of conviction but his heart is not broken, the fountains of feeling dry up and his heart is more difficult to reach.
a real christian who had truly repented is different. every time you bring the truth to him he becomes more easily affected, excited and broken under God's blessed Word. his heart gets into the habit of going along with the convictions of his understanding and he becomes as teachable as a little child.
churches - or individual members - who have only world-ly repentance pass through a revival, are awakened and then grow cold again. let this process be repeated and you will find them more and more difficult to arouse. soon they become as hard as millstone and nothing can ever rally them to a revival again.
314 on the other hand, some churches and individuals experience true repentance. let them go through successive revivals and you will find them growing more and more tender. when they hear the trumpet blow for a revival, they glow instantly and are ready for the work.
the distinction between true and false repentance is as broad as between light and darkness. the principle is illustrated in sinners, who, after passing through repeated revivals, will scoff and criticize. although the heavens hang with clouds of mercy over their heads, they reject it. if they don't have true repentance, every fresh excitement hardens the heart and makes them more difficult to be reached by the truth.
some people are thrown into distress whenever the truth is flashed upon their minds. they may not have as much conviction as the real christian, but the real christian is filled with peace at the very time his tears are flowing from conviction of sin. and each repeated season of conviction makes him more and more watchful, tender and careful, until his conscience becomes so sensitive that the very appearance of evil will offend it. but the other kind of sorrow, which does not lead to true renunciation of sin, leaves the heart harder than before and soon sears the conscience like a hot iron. I timothy 4.2
false repentance is sure to be repented of. you will soon find these people becoming ashamed of the deep feelings that they had. they do not want to speak of them and if they do talk of them, it is always lightly and coldly. perhaps they bustled about during the time of revival and appeared as busy as anybody. very likely they were among the extremes in everything that was done. but now the revival is over and you find them opposed to new measures, changing back and ashamed of their zeal. in fact, they repent of their repentance!
after they have joined a church, they will be ashamed of their public repentance. when the height of the revival has gone by, they will begin to talk about being 'too enthusiastic' and the necessity of being more sober and consistent.
you sometimes find people who profess to be converted in a revival turning against the very measure, means and doctrines by
315 which they profess to have been converted. not so with the true christian. he is never ashamed of his repentance. the last thing he would ever think of being ashamed of is the excitement he felt in a revival.
many people have mistaken conviction for conversion and the sorrow of the world for that godly sorrow that 'worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of' (II cor. 7.10KJV) i am convinced, after years of observation, that this is the true reason for the present deplorable state of the church all over the land.
many sinners think it is a great trial to give up their ungodly companions and their sins. if they had true repentance, they would not think it any cross to give up their sins.
before i came to Christ, i remember what i thought when i first saw young people becoming christians and joining the church. i thought it was a good thing because their souls would be saved and they would get to heaven. but at the time, repentance seemed to be a very sorrowful thing. i never dreamed then that these young people could ever be truly happy.
it is very common for people who know that christianity is good to think they cannot be happy in the church. they do not understand that true repentance leads to an abhorrence of those things that were formerly loved. sinners do not see that when their young friends become true christians, sinful amusements are crucified.
people who experience false repentance do not know what it is the ENJOY christianity. they are not cheerful and happy. they are grieved because they have to withdraw from so many things they love or because they have to give so much money. they are in the fire all the time. instead of rejoicing in every opportunity of self denial and rejoicing in truth, the plain truth distresses them. why? because their hearts do not love to work for God. if they loved to do their duty, every ray of light that broke in upon their minds from heaven would be welcomed and would make them happier.
316 perhaps you think i suppose all true christians are perfect. there is a radical difference between a backslidden christian and a hypocrite who had returned to the world. the hypocrite loves the world and ENJOYS sin when he returns to it. he may have fear, remorse and apprehension about the loss of his character; but, after all, he enjoys sin.
the backslidden christian is different. he leaves his first love, revelation 2.4; then he falls prey to temptation and enters into sin. but he does not love it. it is always bitter to him, and he feels unhappy and homesick. he has, at the time, no love of God to keep him from sin, but he does not love sin. he is unhappy and he feels like a wretch. he is as different from the hypocrite as con be. he can never again ENJOY sin or delight in the pleasures of the world. never again can he drink iniquity lie water. Job 15.16 as long as he continues to wander, he is miserable.
convicted sinners are afraid to pledge themselves to give up their sins. they tell you they can't promise to do it because they are afraid they won't keep the promise. they love sin. the drunkard knows that he loves strong drink. although he may be constrained to abstain from it, he still craves it. likewise, the convicted sinner loves sin and his hold on sin has never been broken - he dares not promise to give it up.
sinners who have worldly sorrow can now see where the difficulty lies and why they are not converted. their intellectual views of sin may be such that if their hearts corresponded, they would be christians. perhaps they think this is true repentance. but if they were truly willing to give up all sin, they would not hesitate to pledge themselves to it and have all the world know that they had done it.
if you are willing to give up sin, you are willing to promise to do it and willing to have it known that you have done it. but if you resist conviction and still love your sins, all you convictions will not help you. they will only sink you deeper in hell for resisting them.
Monday, September 26, 2016
9.26.2016 Finney on DISCOVERING THE WAY OF SALVATION (start of Book 4: LIVING FOR GOD)
302 when I say that Christ is our sanctification, or our holiness, I mean that He is the AUTHOR of our holiness. not only does He make it available to us by His atonement and intercession, but by His direct contact with the soul, H produces holiness. he is not the remote but the direct cause of our being sanctified. He works in us by the influences of His Spirit in a way perfectly consistent with our freedom.
sanctification is received by faith. by faith Jesus is receved and enthroned as King in our hearts. when the mind yields to Christ, it is led by His Spirit and guided and controlled by His hand. the act of the mind that throws the soul into the hand of Christ for sanctification is faith. nothing is necessary except for the mind to SEVER ANY CONFIDENCE IN itSELF and to GIVE itSELF UP TO BE LED AND CONTROLLED BY HIM.
imagine a child who offers his hand to his father to have him lead wherever he pleases. if the child is distrustful or unwilling to be led, or if he has confidence in his own wisdom and strength, he will break away and try to run alone. but if all that self confidence fails,
303 he will come and give himself up to his father again to be led entirely at his will. similarly, by faith an individual gives his mind up to be led and controlled by Jesus Christ. He ceases from his own efforts and leaves himself in the hands of Christ for sanctification.
Jesus is our redemption . I corinthians 1.30 this refers to the jewish practice of redeeming estates or relatives that had been sold for debt. when an estate had been sold out of the family or an individual had been deprived of liberty for debt, they could be redeemed by paying a price. there are frequent allusions in the Bible to this practice of redemption.
while we are in our sins, under the law, we are sold as slaves in the hand of public justice. we are bound over to death and have no possible way to redeem ourselves from the curse of the law. but Christ Himself is the price of our redemption. 'Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. galatians 3.13 He redeems us from the power of sin.
under this covenant of grace, works of law have no more to do with our salvation than if we had never existed. one must differentiate between salvation by works and salvation by grace. salvation by grace is founded on a reason entirely separate from ourselves. under the law, salvation depended on ourselves. now we receive salvation as a free gift. Jesus Christ is the sole author, founder and reason for our salvation.
our own holiness does not enter at all into the reason for our acceptance and salvation. we are not indebted to Christ for a while, until we are sanctified, and then stand in our own righteousness. however perfect and holy we may become, Jesus Christ will forever be the sole reason that we are not in hell. however holy we may become, it will be forever true that we have sinned. in the eye of justice, nothing in us short of our eternal damnation can satisfy the law. but Jesus Christ remains the sole ground of our salvation.
304 faith in Christ puts us in possession of Jesus. He was the very blessing promised in the Abrahamic covenant. throughout the Scriptures, He is held forth as the sum and substance of all God's favors to man. He is the bread of life, the water of life, our strength and our all.
faith puts the mind in possession of these blessings. it annihilates those things that stand in the way of our relationship with Christ. He says, 'behold, I stand at the door and knock. if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him and he with Me. revelation 3.20
why don't we receive Christ as our wisdom? because we depend on our own wisdom and think we know the things of God. as long as we depend on this, we keep the door shut. throw open the door and give up your wisdom. when we are empty of any available knowledge concerning the way of salvation, then Jesus will teach us. until we do this, there is a closed door between us and Christ. we have something of our own instead of coming and throwing ourselves perfectly into the hands of Jesus.
how does faith put us in possession of the righteousness of Christ? until our minds take hold of the righteousness of Christ, we are engaged in working out a righteousness of our own. until we cease entirely from our own works and throw ourselves on Jesus for righteousness, we cannot come to Him. He won't patch up our own righteousness to make it suitable. if we depend on our prayers, our tears, our charities, or anything we have done, He will not receive us. but the moment an individual takes hold of Jesus, he receives all Christ's righteousness through grace.
this is also true in regard to holiness and redemption. until an individual receives Christ, he does not cease from his own works. but the moment the mind yields itself up to Jesus, the responsibility is His the believer by faith pledges Christ for his obedience and holiness. when the mind properly recognizes Christ and receives Him in unwavering faith, nothing is left contrary to the law of God.
whenever you come to Christ, receive Hm for all that He is - 'wisdom and righeousness and sanctification and redemption'. nothing
306 but unbelief can hinder you from enjoying it all now. no preparation will help. you must receive salvation as the free gift of grace.
true faith always works by love Galatians 5.6, purifies the heart. acts 15.9, and overcomes the world. I john 5.4 whenever you find any difficulty in your way, you have a lack of faith. no matter what happens to you outwardly - if you find yourself backsliding or if your mind is confused - unbelief is the cause and faith is the remedy. if you lay hold of Jesus and keep hold, all the devils in hell can never drive you away from God or put out your light.
sanctification is received by faith. by faith Jesus is receved and enthroned as King in our hearts. when the mind yields to Christ, it is led by His Spirit and guided and controlled by His hand. the act of the mind that throws the soul into the hand of Christ for sanctification is faith. nothing is necessary except for the mind to SEVER ANY CONFIDENCE IN itSELF and to GIVE itSELF UP TO BE LED AND CONTROLLED BY HIM.
imagine a child who offers his hand to his father to have him lead wherever he pleases. if the child is distrustful or unwilling to be led, or if he has confidence in his own wisdom and strength, he will break away and try to run alone. but if all that self confidence fails,
303 he will come and give himself up to his father again to be led entirely at his will. similarly, by faith an individual gives his mind up to be led and controlled by Jesus Christ. He ceases from his own efforts and leaves himself in the hands of Christ for sanctification.
Jesus is our redemption . I corinthians 1.30 this refers to the jewish practice of redeeming estates or relatives that had been sold for debt. when an estate had been sold out of the family or an individual had been deprived of liberty for debt, they could be redeemed by paying a price. there are frequent allusions in the Bible to this practice of redemption.
while we are in our sins, under the law, we are sold as slaves in the hand of public justice. we are bound over to death and have no possible way to redeem ourselves from the curse of the law. but Christ Himself is the price of our redemption. 'Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. galatians 3.13 He redeems us from the power of sin.
under this covenant of grace, works of law have no more to do with our salvation than if we had never existed. one must differentiate between salvation by works and salvation by grace. salvation by grace is founded on a reason entirely separate from ourselves. under the law, salvation depended on ourselves. now we receive salvation as a free gift. Jesus Christ is the sole author, founder and reason for our salvation.
our own holiness does not enter at all into the reason for our acceptance and salvation. we are not indebted to Christ for a while, until we are sanctified, and then stand in our own righteousness. however perfect and holy we may become, Jesus Christ will forever be the sole reason that we are not in hell. however holy we may become, it will be forever true that we have sinned. in the eye of justice, nothing in us short of our eternal damnation can satisfy the law. but Jesus Christ remains the sole ground of our salvation.
304 faith in Christ puts us in possession of Jesus. He was the very blessing promised in the Abrahamic covenant. throughout the Scriptures, He is held forth as the sum and substance of all God's favors to man. He is the bread of life, the water of life, our strength and our all.
faith puts the mind in possession of these blessings. it annihilates those things that stand in the way of our relationship with Christ. He says, 'behold, I stand at the door and knock. if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him and he with Me. revelation 3.20
why don't we receive Christ as our wisdom? because we depend on our own wisdom and think we know the things of God. as long as we depend on this, we keep the door shut. throw open the door and give up your wisdom. when we are empty of any available knowledge concerning the way of salvation, then Jesus will teach us. until we do this, there is a closed door between us and Christ. we have something of our own instead of coming and throwing ourselves perfectly into the hands of Jesus.
how does faith put us in possession of the righteousness of Christ? until our minds take hold of the righteousness of Christ, we are engaged in working out a righteousness of our own. until we cease entirely from our own works and throw ourselves on Jesus for righteousness, we cannot come to Him. He won't patch up our own righteousness to make it suitable. if we depend on our prayers, our tears, our charities, or anything we have done, He will not receive us. but the moment an individual takes hold of Jesus, he receives all Christ's righteousness through grace.
this is also true in regard to holiness and redemption. until an individual receives Christ, he does not cease from his own works. but the moment the mind yields itself up to Jesus, the responsibility is His the believer by faith pledges Christ for his obedience and holiness. when the mind properly recognizes Christ and receives Him in unwavering faith, nothing is left contrary to the law of God.
whenever you come to Christ, receive Hm for all that He is - 'wisdom and righeousness and sanctification and redemption'. nothing
306 but unbelief can hinder you from enjoying it all now. no preparation will help. you must receive salvation as the free gift of grace.
true faith always works by love Galatians 5.6, purifies the heart. acts 15.9, and overcomes the world. I john 5.4 whenever you find any difficulty in your way, you have a lack of faith. no matter what happens to you outwardly - if you find yourself backsliding or if your mind is confused - unbelief is the cause and faith is the remedy. if you lay hold of Jesus and keep hold, all the devils in hell can never drive you away from God or put out your light.
9.26.2016 Finney: FIVE THINGS A PREACHER NEEDS by rev. E.E Shelhamer
294 in my private devotions, i frequently pray about 5 needs. i have written them here in case anyone else can profit from them.
first, PURITY. it is not enough to have at one time obtained the blessed experience of heart purity. no, I must meet the Lord frequently and feel His purity surging through my being. this implies not only purity of heart but purity in thought and deed. when i leave a person of a home, i must leave it as pure as i found it, in better shape if possible. in short, i must be clean in spirit, person and contact with others - a good representative of Jesus.
second, Humility. dear Lord, let me be truly humble; so humble that i will reflect Your humility; so humble that i will not be conscious that i and humble and yet others will be reproved and inspired as they see Your gentleness in me. as andrew murray would say, 'let me have perfect quietness of heart. let me never be worried, irritated, angry or disappointed. i pray that i will expect nothing and wonder at nothing that is done to me. i pray that i will feel no resentment at anything done against me, feel at rest when nobody praises me and when i am blamed or despised. i ask to have a blessed home in the Lord where i can go, shut the door and talk to my Father in secret. i ask for a place where i can be at peace as in a deep sea of calmness when all around me is trouble.
third, CHARITY. by char i mean that i want to be so magnanimous that i will assume the best about the deeds of others. Lord, please keep me from a critical spirit so that the reputation of others will be safe in my hands. do not let me find it easy when preaching or in conversation, to go out of my way and cast a bad shadow on another when he is not able to explain. let me always practice the Golden Rule and 'do unto others as i would have them do unto me. matthew 7.12; luke 6.31
295 fourth, CHASTITY. I want to be so chaste that anything that savors of coarseness or suggestiveness will have no place in me. ..let me never use language or gestures..that could cheapen the Gospel of the Son of God.
fifth, BREVITY. let me know when and how to stop. i fear that i sometimes preach people under conviction, then preach them out again. it is better not to finish my sermon and have a fruitful appeal. than preach 10 minutes too long and lose one seeker. more than once i have started in the Spirit and, i fear, ended in the flesh. in other words, i reached a climax and failed to quickly draw the net...
first, PURITY. it is not enough to have at one time obtained the blessed experience of heart purity. no, I must meet the Lord frequently and feel His purity surging through my being. this implies not only purity of heart but purity in thought and deed. when i leave a person of a home, i must leave it as pure as i found it, in better shape if possible. in short, i must be clean in spirit, person and contact with others - a good representative of Jesus.
second, Humility. dear Lord, let me be truly humble; so humble that i will reflect Your humility; so humble that i will not be conscious that i and humble and yet others will be reproved and inspired as they see Your gentleness in me. as andrew murray would say, 'let me have perfect quietness of heart. let me never be worried, irritated, angry or disappointed. i pray that i will expect nothing and wonder at nothing that is done to me. i pray that i will feel no resentment at anything done against me, feel at rest when nobody praises me and when i am blamed or despised. i ask to have a blessed home in the Lord where i can go, shut the door and talk to my Father in secret. i ask for a place where i can be at peace as in a deep sea of calmness when all around me is trouble.
third, CHARITY. by char i mean that i want to be so magnanimous that i will assume the best about the deeds of others. Lord, please keep me from a critical spirit so that the reputation of others will be safe in my hands. do not let me find it easy when preaching or in conversation, to go out of my way and cast a bad shadow on another when he is not able to explain. let me always practice the Golden Rule and 'do unto others as i would have them do unto me. matthew 7.12; luke 6.31
295 fourth, CHASTITY. I want to be so chaste that anything that savors of coarseness or suggestiveness will have no place in me. ..let me never use language or gestures..that could cheapen the Gospel of the Son of God.
fifth, BREVITY. let me know when and how to stop. i fear that i sometimes preach people under conviction, then preach them out again. it is better not to finish my sermon and have a fruitful appeal. than preach 10 minutes too long and lose one seeker. more than once i have started in the Spirit and, i fear, ended in the flesh. in other words, i reached a climax and failed to quickly draw the net...
Friday, September 23, 2016
9.22.2016 Finney on THE PRESENCE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT ephesians 5.18
285 why do many people not have the Spirit?
it may be that they live a hypocritical life.
their prayers are not earnest and sincere.
not only is their religion a mere show without any heart, but they are insincere in their personal exchange with others.
others are so frivolous that the Spirit will not dwell with them.
others are so proud that they cannot have the Spirit.
they like to find ways to prove to everyone that they are better than others.
they are so fond of dress, high life and fashion, it is no wonder they are not filled with the Spirit.
some are so worldly-minded, love property so well and are trying so hard to get rich that they cannot have the Spirit. how can He dwell with them when all their thoughts are on things of the world and all their powers are absorbed in procuring wealth? and when they get money, they are in agony if their consciences pressure them to do something with it for the conversion of the world. they show how much they love the world in all their conversations with others. little things show it. they will badger a poor man who is doing a little piece
286 of work for them down to the lowest penny. but if they are dealing on a large scale, very likely they will be liberal and fair because it is for their advantage.
if they do not care about the person - a laborer, mechanic or a waitress - they will grind him down to the last fraction, no matter what his work is really worth. they actually pretend to make it a matter of conscience that they cannot possibly give any more. now, they would be ashamed to deal like this with people of their own rank because it would be found out and injure their reputation.
but God knows it and has it all written down. he knows that they are covetous and unfair in their dealings. he knows they will not do right as a matter of course, but only when it is for their interest. now, how can such believers have the Spirit of God? it is impossible.
others are neglecting some known duty and that is why they do not have the Spirit. one does not pray in his family, though he knows he should, yet he is trying to get the spirit of prayer!
if you have neglected any known duty and lost the spirit of prayer, you must yield first. God has a disagreement with you. you have refused obedience to God and you must change. you may have forgotten it, but God has not. you must recall your failure and repent. God never will yield or grant you His Spirit until you repent.
if you know what it is to commune with God, how sweet it is to dissolve in penitence and to be filled with the Spirit, you cannot help but desire a return of those joys. you may determine to pray for it and pray for a revival of religion. but on the whole you are unwilling to see it come. you have so much to do that you cannot wait for it.
or it would require so many sacrifices that you cannot bear to have it. there are some things you are not willing to give up. you find that, if you wish to have the Spirit of God dwell with you, you must lead a different life. you must break off from your worldly associations and confess your sins. so, on the whole, you do not really want to have the Spirit
287 come, unless He will consent to let you live as you please. he will never do that.
your guilt is as great as the authority of God that commands you, 'Be filled with the Spirit'. God commands it and it is just as much a disobedience of God's commands as it would be to swear, steal, commit adultery, or break the Sabbath. yet there are many people who do not blame themselves at all for not having the Spirit. they even think they are very good christians because they go to prayer meetings and take Communion, though they live year after year without the Spirit of God. God who says, 'Do not be drunk (ephesians 5.18) also says, 'Be filled with the Spirit.
you say that if a man is a habitual adulterer or a thief, he is not christian. why? because he lives in habitual disobedience to God. likewise, if he swears, you have no love for him. you will not allow him to plead that his heart is right and that words are nothing. he cannot tell you that God does not care about words. you would think it outrageous to have such a man in the church or to have a group of these people pretend to call themselves a christian church. yet they are no more living in disobedience to God than you are, you who live without the spirit of prayer and without the presence of God.
your guilt is equal to all the good you might do if you were filled with the Spirit of God in as great a measure as it is your duty to be. you are entirely responsible to the church and to God for all this good that you might do. a man is responsible for all the good he can do.
you will be called eccentric, and you will probably deserve it. probably you really will be eccentric.
i never knew a person who was filled with the Spirit who was not called eccentric. the reason is that these people are unlike other people. they act under different
288 influences, take different views, are moved by different motives and are led by a different Spirit. you are to expect such remarks.
i have often heard this remark regarding such a person: 'He is a good man, but he is rather eccentric. i have sometimes asked for specifics. how is he eccentric? their answer amounts to this: he is spiritual. make up your mind to be 'eccentric. there is such a thing as false eccentricity. Horrible! but there is such a thing as being so deeply imbued with the Spirit of God that you must and will appear strange and eccentric to those who cannot understand the reasons behind your conduct.
paul was accused of being deranged by those who did not understand the power under which he acted. no doubt, Festus thought the man was crazy, that 'much learning' had driven him mad. acts 26.24 but paul said, 'I am not mad,...but speak the words of truth and reason. v. 25 his conduct was so strange, so novel, that fes thought it must be insanity. but the truth simply was that paul saw that paul saw the subject so clearly that he threw his whole soul into it.
you must make up your mind to throw yourself to Jesus. and the more you do this, the more you will live apart from the world, walking closer to God. the piety of the ministry, though real, is so superficial, in many instances, that the spiritual people of the church feel that ministers do not and cannot sympathize with them...
289 very likely the leading men in the church will oppose you. there has always been opposition in the church. it was this way when Christ was on earth. if you are far above their state of feeling, church members will oppose you. 'yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. II tim. 3.12 often the elders and even the minister will oppose you if you are filled with the Spirit of God.
you must expect very frequent and agonizing conflicts with Satan. Satan has very little trouble with christians who are not spiritual, but lukewarm, slothful and worldly minded. these christians do not understand what is said about spiritual conflicts. perhaps they will smile when spiritual battles are mentioned. so the Devil leaves them alone. they do not disturb him, nor he them.
but spiritual christians, whom satan understands very well, are really injuring him; therefore, he sets himself against them. such christians often have terrible conflicts. they have temptations that they never thought of before: blasphemous thoughts, atheism, suggestions to do deeds of wickedness, to destroy their own lives and more. if you are spiritual, you can expect these terrible conflicts.
290 you will have greater conflicts within yourself than you ever dreamed of. you will sometimes find your own weaknesses making strange headway against the Spirit. 'the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. galatians 5.17 such a christian (until wholly sanctified) is often thrown into consternation at the power of his own corruptions. christians are often amazed and confused by the power of their own corruptions.
but you will have peace with God. if the church, sinners and the devil oppose you, there will be One with whom you will have peace. let you who are called to these trials, conflicts and temptations and you who groan, pray, weep and break your hearts, remember this consideration. our peace toward God will flow like a river. you will also have peace of conscience if you are led by the Spirit. you will not be constantly goaded and tortured by a guilty conscience. your conscience will be as calm, quiet and unruffled as a lake in summer.
if you are filled with the Spirit, you will be useful. you cannot help being useful. even if you were sick and unable to leave your room and could see no one, you would be 10 times more useful than 100 lukewarm christians with no spirituality.
once a fine christian man was dying of tuberculosis. he was poor and had been sick for years. a very kind, but unconverted, merchant in town would send him things for his comfort and for his family. the dying man was grateful for the kindness, but he could not return the favor.
finally, he decided that praying for the merchant's salvation was the greatest gift he could give. he began to pray. his soul kindled with the Spirit and he was in vibrant communication with God.
at the time, there was not a revival in progress, but to everyone's astonishment, this merchant accepted Jesus as his Lord. this
291 spark kindled the roaring fire of revival all over town and many many people were saved.
this poor man lingered in this condition of weakness for several years. after his death, i visited his home and his widow showed me his diary. among other entries was this: 'I am acquainted with about 30 ministers and churches. he went on to say how he set aside certain hours in the day and week to pray for each of these ministers and churches. he also prayed for different missionary stations.
generally his diary read like this: 'today i was enabled to offer what i call the prayer of faith for the outpouring of the Spirit on ------ church, and i trust God will soon bring a revival. on another date he wrote, 'I have today been able to offer what i call the prayer of faith for ------ church, and trust there will be a revival there. thus he prayed for them in faith that a revival would soon start among them.
292 if you are filled with the Spirit, you will not find yourself distressed, annoyed, or worried when people speak against you. when i find people irritated and fretting over every little thing that touches them, i am sure they are not filled with the Spirit of Christ. Jesus Christ could have everything said against Him that malice invented, and yet not be disturbed by it. if you desire to be meek under persecution, exemplify the temper of the Savior and honor religion this way, you need to be filled with the Spirit.
you will be calm under affliction. you will not be confused or worried when you see a storm coming. people will be astonished at your calm and cheerful disposition under heavy trials. they will not understand the inner support Spirit-filled believers have.
if you do not have the Spirit, you are very likely to stumble because of those who are filled with the Holy Spirit. you will doubt the propriety of their conduct. if they seem to feel things a food deal more than yourself, you will be likely to call it 'base feeling'. you will perhaps doubt their sincerity when they say they have these feelings. you will say, 'I don't know what to think of so and so. he seems to be very pious, but i do not understand him. i think he has a lot of base feeling. you will be trying to criticize them to justify yourself.
if you want to have the Spirit, you must be childlike and yield to His INFLUENCES. if He is drawing you to prayer, you must stop everything to yield to His gentle strivings. no doubt, you have sometimes felt a desire to pray for something and you have put it off and resisted until God finally stopped calling you. if you wish Him to remain, you must yield to His SOFTEST LEADINGS, watch and learn what He wants you to do and yield yourself to His guidance.
285 why do many people not have the Spirit?
it may be that they live a hypocritical life.
their prayers are not earnest and sincere.
not only is their religion a mere show without any heart, but they are insincere in their personal exchange with others.
others are so frivolous that the Spirit will not dwell with them.
others are so proud that they cannot have the Spirit.
they like to find ways to prove to everyone that they are better than others.
they are so fond of dress, high life and fashion, it is no wonder they are not filled with the Spirit.
some are so worldly-minded, love property so well and are trying so hard to get rich that they cannot have the Spirit. how can He dwell with them when all their thoughts are on things of the world and all their powers are absorbed in procuring wealth? and when they get money, they are in agony if their consciences pressure them to do something with it for the conversion of the world. they show how much they love the world in all their conversations with others. little things show it. they will badger a poor man who is doing a little piece
286 of work for them down to the lowest penny. but if they are dealing on a large scale, very likely they will be liberal and fair because it is for their advantage.
if they do not care about the person - a laborer, mechanic or a waitress - they will grind him down to the last fraction, no matter what his work is really worth. they actually pretend to make it a matter of conscience that they cannot possibly give any more. now, they would be ashamed to deal like this with people of their own rank because it would be found out and injure their reputation.
but God knows it and has it all written down. he knows that they are covetous and unfair in their dealings. he knows they will not do right as a matter of course, but only when it is for their interest. now, how can such believers have the Spirit of God? it is impossible.
others are neglecting some known duty and that is why they do not have the Spirit. one does not pray in his family, though he knows he should, yet he is trying to get the spirit of prayer!
if you have neglected any known duty and lost the spirit of prayer, you must yield first. God has a disagreement with you. you have refused obedience to God and you must change. you may have forgotten it, but God has not. you must recall your failure and repent. God never will yield or grant you His Spirit until you repent.
if you know what it is to commune with God, how sweet it is to dissolve in penitence and to be filled with the Spirit, you cannot help but desire a return of those joys. you may determine to pray for it and pray for a revival of religion. but on the whole you are unwilling to see it come. you have so much to do that you cannot wait for it.
or it would require so many sacrifices that you cannot bear to have it. there are some things you are not willing to give up. you find that, if you wish to have the Spirit of God dwell with you, you must lead a different life. you must break off from your worldly associations and confess your sins. so, on the whole, you do not really want to have the Spirit
287 come, unless He will consent to let you live as you please. he will never do that.
your guilt is as great as the authority of God that commands you, 'Be filled with the Spirit'. God commands it and it is just as much a disobedience of God's commands as it would be to swear, steal, commit adultery, or break the Sabbath. yet there are many people who do not blame themselves at all for not having the Spirit. they even think they are very good christians because they go to prayer meetings and take Communion, though they live year after year without the Spirit of God. God who says, 'Do not be drunk (ephesians 5.18) also says, 'Be filled with the Spirit.
you say that if a man is a habitual adulterer or a thief, he is not christian. why? because he lives in habitual disobedience to God. likewise, if he swears, you have no love for him. you will not allow him to plead that his heart is right and that words are nothing. he cannot tell you that God does not care about words. you would think it outrageous to have such a man in the church or to have a group of these people pretend to call themselves a christian church. yet they are no more living in disobedience to God than you are, you who live without the spirit of prayer and without the presence of God.
your guilt is equal to all the good you might do if you were filled with the Spirit of God in as great a measure as it is your duty to be. you are entirely responsible to the church and to God for all this good that you might do. a man is responsible for all the good he can do.
you will be called eccentric, and you will probably deserve it. probably you really will be eccentric.
i never knew a person who was filled with the Spirit who was not called eccentric. the reason is that these people are unlike other people. they act under different
288 influences, take different views, are moved by different motives and are led by a different Spirit. you are to expect such remarks.
i have often heard this remark regarding such a person: 'He is a good man, but he is rather eccentric. i have sometimes asked for specifics. how is he eccentric? their answer amounts to this: he is spiritual. make up your mind to be 'eccentric. there is such a thing as false eccentricity. Horrible! but there is such a thing as being so deeply imbued with the Spirit of God that you must and will appear strange and eccentric to those who cannot understand the reasons behind your conduct.
paul was accused of being deranged by those who did not understand the power under which he acted. no doubt, Festus thought the man was crazy, that 'much learning' had driven him mad. acts 26.24 but paul said, 'I am not mad,...but speak the words of truth and reason. v. 25 his conduct was so strange, so novel, that fes thought it must be insanity. but the truth simply was that paul saw that paul saw the subject so clearly that he threw his whole soul into it.
you must make up your mind to throw yourself to Jesus. and the more you do this, the more you will live apart from the world, walking closer to God. the piety of the ministry, though real, is so superficial, in many instances, that the spiritual people of the church feel that ministers do not and cannot sympathize with them...
289 very likely the leading men in the church will oppose you. there has always been opposition in the church. it was this way when Christ was on earth. if you are far above their state of feeling, church members will oppose you. 'yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. II tim. 3.12 often the elders and even the minister will oppose you if you are filled with the Spirit of God.
you must expect very frequent and agonizing conflicts with Satan. Satan has very little trouble with christians who are not spiritual, but lukewarm, slothful and worldly minded. these christians do not understand what is said about spiritual conflicts. perhaps they will smile when spiritual battles are mentioned. so the Devil leaves them alone. they do not disturb him, nor he them.
but spiritual christians, whom satan understands very well, are really injuring him; therefore, he sets himself against them. such christians often have terrible conflicts. they have temptations that they never thought of before: blasphemous thoughts, atheism, suggestions to do deeds of wickedness, to destroy their own lives and more. if you are spiritual, you can expect these terrible conflicts.
290 you will have greater conflicts within yourself than you ever dreamed of. you will sometimes find your own weaknesses making strange headway against the Spirit. 'the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. galatians 5.17 such a christian (until wholly sanctified) is often thrown into consternation at the power of his own corruptions. christians are often amazed and confused by the power of their own corruptions.
but you will have peace with God. if the church, sinners and the devil oppose you, there will be One with whom you will have peace. let you who are called to these trials, conflicts and temptations and you who groan, pray, weep and break your hearts, remember this consideration. our peace toward God will flow like a river. you will also have peace of conscience if you are led by the Spirit. you will not be constantly goaded and tortured by a guilty conscience. your conscience will be as calm, quiet and unruffled as a lake in summer.
if you are filled with the Spirit, you will be useful. you cannot help being useful. even if you were sick and unable to leave your room and could see no one, you would be 10 times more useful than 100 lukewarm christians with no spirituality.
once a fine christian man was dying of tuberculosis. he was poor and had been sick for years. a very kind, but unconverted, merchant in town would send him things for his comfort and for his family. the dying man was grateful for the kindness, but he could not return the favor.
finally, he decided that praying for the merchant's salvation was the greatest gift he could give. he began to pray. his soul kindled with the Spirit and he was in vibrant communication with God.
at the time, there was not a revival in progress, but to everyone's astonishment, this merchant accepted Jesus as his Lord. this
291 spark kindled the roaring fire of revival all over town and many many people were saved.
this poor man lingered in this condition of weakness for several years. after his death, i visited his home and his widow showed me his diary. among other entries was this: 'I am acquainted with about 30 ministers and churches. he went on to say how he set aside certain hours in the day and week to pray for each of these ministers and churches. he also prayed for different missionary stations.
generally his diary read like this: 'today i was enabled to offer what i call the prayer of faith for the outpouring of the Spirit on ------ church, and i trust God will soon bring a revival. on another date he wrote, 'I have today been able to offer what i call the prayer of faith for ------ church, and trust there will be a revival there. thus he prayed for them in faith that a revival would soon start among them.
292 if you are filled with the Spirit, you will not find yourself distressed, annoyed, or worried when people speak against you. when i find people irritated and fretting over every little thing that touches them, i am sure they are not filled with the Spirit of Christ. Jesus Christ could have everything said against Him that malice invented, and yet not be disturbed by it. if you desire to be meek under persecution, exemplify the temper of the Savior and honor religion this way, you need to be filled with the Spirit.
you will be calm under affliction. you will not be confused or worried when you see a storm coming. people will be astonished at your calm and cheerful disposition under heavy trials. they will not understand the inner support Spirit-filled believers have.
if you do not have the Spirit, you are very likely to stumble because of those who are filled with the Holy Spirit. you will doubt the propriety of their conduct. if they seem to feel things a food deal more than yourself, you will be likely to call it 'base feeling'. you will perhaps doubt their sincerity when they say they have these feelings. you will say, 'I don't know what to think of so and so. he seems to be very pious, but i do not understand him. i think he has a lot of base feeling. you will be trying to criticize them to justify yourself.
if you want to have the Spirit, you must be childlike and yield to His INFLUENCES. if He is drawing you to prayer, you must stop everything to yield to His gentle strivings. no doubt, you have sometimes felt a desire to pray for something and you have put it off and resisted until God finally stopped calling you. if you wish Him to remain, you must yield to His SOFTEST LEADINGS, watch and learn what He wants you to do and yield yourself to His guidance.
Tuesday, September 20, 2016
9.20.2016 What keeps hurt from turning to bitterness and anger? HUMILITY
Hurt, humility and honor by David Brickner, executive director of Jews for Jesus
found in their september 2016 newsletter
one of my favorite Bible stories is the unlikely tale of two lives unexpectedly entwined through terrible tragedy and profound desperation. it's a story of surprising twists and transforming faith and you'll find it in II Kings, chapter 5. the story opens with Naaman, commander of the syrian army and a young Israeli servant. N, the 'might man of valor', had defeated Isr's army. he was a sworn enemy of the jewish people. the unnamed servant girl had been kidnapped, possibly by N. himself. after being ripped away from her family, her country, her life - she was mad to wait on N's wife. today we would describe her as a victim of human trafficking.
so when N contracted the dreaded disease leprosy, one might have expected this girl to rejoice. her captor had received the worst kind of death sentence. leprosy causes skin lesions and destroys nerves. in later stages lepers lose their fingers and toes, and ultimately, their lives. see how the servant girl response to N's desperate situation?
does she keep silent, inwardly gloating?
no, she suggests how he might be healed, based on her faith in the god of Israel - the very God who'd allowed the Syrians to overcome Isr!
how was it that this girl was able to keep her hope and faith after such trauma - even to the point of caring for those responsible for her pain and loss?
what keeps hurt from turning to bitterness and anger?
humility.
and how was it that N, this might man of valor, actually heeded her suggestion?
desperation?
probably.
but out of that desperation came something else...eventually.
that something was, again, humility.
Humility is one of the highest ranking qualities God wants for and from us and He often works it into our lives through suffering. not that humility is an automatic or natural result of suffering. N begins by using his favor with the king of Syria to leverage favor with the king of Isr. he brings the Syr kin's 'letter of reference', along with an enormous amount of wealth, in an attempt to secure his healing.
N doesn't realize that no amount of money can buy a miracle and no human king can make it happen - but the king of Isr certainly knows it. he believes N is setting him up . instead of turning to the only One who can help, the king tears his clothes as an act of despair, mourning and anger. if the king tears his clothes, everyone in the kingdom gets worried, which is how the prophet Elisha hears of the situation and sends word to the king to have n come to him.
N arrives at Elisha's door only to be met by a servant who relays the prophet's instructions: go dunk yourself in the jordan river 7 times. N becomes enraged. he expected to be healed with the wave of a hand but the prophet doesn't even greet him. N feels disrespected and humiliated.
it's been said you can't humiliate a humble person. anger and disappointment may result from unmet expectations, but genuine humility helps us have realistic expectations of ourselves and others.
N's servants respectfully yet boldly speak sense to him, and their wise counsel helps N to humble himself. in an amazing miracle, his skin becomes like that of a young child.
even more amazing, I think, is how this story parallels the spiritual realm.
Leprosy is a metaphor for all that is wrong in this world and in our lives. what the Bible calls sin is actually a spiritual disease that makes us unaware and insensitive to God and His ways. washing in the jordan is also a profound metaphor, with spiritual cleansing in view.
the question is, WILL WE HUMBLE OURSELVES TO RECEIVE HIS CLEANSING, HIS HEALING, ON HIS TERMS?
or will we self-righteously demand what we think God owes us, perhaps even trying to buy His favor with a mountain of money or good deeds?
N may not have been able to humble himself without help, but his healing deepens that humility - which might account for his strange request. he wants to take home two big piles of dirt. what's up with that? he wanted a foundation to build an altar to the one true God - from the soil of the land where the one ue God was indeed honored. in essence he's saying, 'when I go home, I want to worship the real God as best I can.
N knows that back home he'll be surrounded by people who don't honor god at all. he won't be able to avoid the company of idolaters, but he wants the prophet to know he won't be worshiping with them. in fact, their idolatry will constantly remind him of what the one true God has done for him. so N basically asks the prophet, is that okay? will god forgive me for being surrounded by those who don't honor Him? the man of God then gives him 'Shalom'. Wholeness. go in peace. it's going to be okay.
like N, we all need to build a foundation from which to honor the Lord wherever we live and wherever we go. we build that foundation through reading and learning (note - AND DOING) God's Word...without that foundation, we will be sorely lacking the ability to honor the Lord and live for Him.
God didn't save us in order to seal us within a spiritual bubble. some are living among family or roommates who dishonor God, however unknowingly. others feel oppressed by the nastiness of office politics or coarse language and innuendos. but as we honor the Lord in our hearts, He is more than able to bring His transforming power into any situation. he can give us the courage to honor Him and speak of His love to others who don't yet know that good news. through faith and humility, our lives can become wonderfully honorable, even heroic.
maybe you have experienced or even now are experiencing great pain be it physical illness or emotional trauma. i have found - and you can too - that God is right there to help you. He can transform even the worst experiences to give your life a deeper sense of purpose and a brighter sense of destiny - even if you may not be able to feel or see it right now.
the Bible doesn't promise that if only we do this or that, our difficulties will disappear. we still have to deal with hurt and grief and loss this side of heaven. our circumstances may not change, but we do. we really do change. I want God to rant me the humility to seek after Him and receive all I need to genuinely honor Him wherever I go. I hope you do, too.
found in their september 2016 newsletter
one of my favorite Bible stories is the unlikely tale of two lives unexpectedly entwined through terrible tragedy and profound desperation. it's a story of surprising twists and transforming faith and you'll find it in II Kings, chapter 5. the story opens with Naaman, commander of the syrian army and a young Israeli servant. N, the 'might man of valor', had defeated Isr's army. he was a sworn enemy of the jewish people. the unnamed servant girl had been kidnapped, possibly by N. himself. after being ripped away from her family, her country, her life - she was mad to wait on N's wife. today we would describe her as a victim of human trafficking.
so when N contracted the dreaded disease leprosy, one might have expected this girl to rejoice. her captor had received the worst kind of death sentence. leprosy causes skin lesions and destroys nerves. in later stages lepers lose their fingers and toes, and ultimately, their lives. see how the servant girl response to N's desperate situation?
does she keep silent, inwardly gloating?
no, she suggests how he might be healed, based on her faith in the god of Israel - the very God who'd allowed the Syrians to overcome Isr!
how was it that this girl was able to keep her hope and faith after such trauma - even to the point of caring for those responsible for her pain and loss?
what keeps hurt from turning to bitterness and anger?
humility.
and how was it that N, this might man of valor, actually heeded her suggestion?
desperation?
probably.
but out of that desperation came something else...eventually.
that something was, again, humility.
Humility is one of the highest ranking qualities God wants for and from us and He often works it into our lives through suffering. not that humility is an automatic or natural result of suffering. N begins by using his favor with the king of Syria to leverage favor with the king of Isr. he brings the Syr kin's 'letter of reference', along with an enormous amount of wealth, in an attempt to secure his healing.
N doesn't realize that no amount of money can buy a miracle and no human king can make it happen - but the king of Isr certainly knows it. he believes N is setting him up . instead of turning to the only One who can help, the king tears his clothes as an act of despair, mourning and anger. if the king tears his clothes, everyone in the kingdom gets worried, which is how the prophet Elisha hears of the situation and sends word to the king to have n come to him.
N arrives at Elisha's door only to be met by a servant who relays the prophet's instructions: go dunk yourself in the jordan river 7 times. N becomes enraged. he expected to be healed with the wave of a hand but the prophet doesn't even greet him. N feels disrespected and humiliated.
it's been said you can't humiliate a humble person. anger and disappointment may result from unmet expectations, but genuine humility helps us have realistic expectations of ourselves and others.
N's servants respectfully yet boldly speak sense to him, and their wise counsel helps N to humble himself. in an amazing miracle, his skin becomes like that of a young child.
even more amazing, I think, is how this story parallels the spiritual realm.
Leprosy is a metaphor for all that is wrong in this world and in our lives. what the Bible calls sin is actually a spiritual disease that makes us unaware and insensitive to God and His ways. washing in the jordan is also a profound metaphor, with spiritual cleansing in view.
the question is, WILL WE HUMBLE OURSELVES TO RECEIVE HIS CLEANSING, HIS HEALING, ON HIS TERMS?
or will we self-righteously demand what we think God owes us, perhaps even trying to buy His favor with a mountain of money or good deeds?
N may not have been able to humble himself without help, but his healing deepens that humility - which might account for his strange request. he wants to take home two big piles of dirt. what's up with that? he wanted a foundation to build an altar to the one true God - from the soil of the land where the one ue God was indeed honored. in essence he's saying, 'when I go home, I want to worship the real God as best I can.
N knows that back home he'll be surrounded by people who don't honor god at all. he won't be able to avoid the company of idolaters, but he wants the prophet to know he won't be worshiping with them. in fact, their idolatry will constantly remind him of what the one true God has done for him. so N basically asks the prophet, is that okay? will god forgive me for being surrounded by those who don't honor Him? the man of God then gives him 'Shalom'. Wholeness. go in peace. it's going to be okay.
like N, we all need to build a foundation from which to honor the Lord wherever we live and wherever we go. we build that foundation through reading and learning (note - AND DOING) God's Word...without that foundation, we will be sorely lacking the ability to honor the Lord and live for Him.
God didn't save us in order to seal us within a spiritual bubble. some are living among family or roommates who dishonor God, however unknowingly. others feel oppressed by the nastiness of office politics or coarse language and innuendos. but as we honor the Lord in our hearts, He is more than able to bring His transforming power into any situation. he can give us the courage to honor Him and speak of His love to others who don't yet know that good news. through faith and humility, our lives can become wonderfully honorable, even heroic.
maybe you have experienced or even now are experiencing great pain be it physical illness or emotional trauma. i have found - and you can too - that God is right there to help you. He can transform even the worst experiences to give your life a deeper sense of purpose and a brighter sense of destiny - even if you may not be able to feel or see it right now.
the Bible doesn't promise that if only we do this or that, our difficulties will disappear. we still have to deal with hurt and grief and loss this side of heaven. our circumstances may not change, but we do. we really do change. I want God to rant me the humility to seek after Him and receive all I need to genuinely honor Him wherever I go. I hope you do, too.
Monday, September 19, 2016
9.19.2016 Finney on INSTUCTIONS TO CONVERTS
FEED MY LAMBS john 21.15
272one of the first things young converts should be taught is to distinguish between emotion and principle in christianity. fix these words in your mind;
DISTINGUISH BETWEEN EMOTION AND PRINCIPLE.
emotion is the state of mind of which we are conscious and that we call feeling. it is an involuntary state of mind that arise under certain circumstances or certain influences. there may be intense feelings or tranquility, or feelings may disappear entirely. principle is the voluntary decision of the mid, the firm determination to fulfill duty and to obey the will of God, by which a christian should always be governed.
when a man decides to obey god because it is right, that is PRINCIPLE. whether he feels any lively religious emotions at the time or not, he will do his duty cheerfully, readily and heartily. this is acting out of principle and not emotion.
many young converts have mistaken views on this subject. they let their feelings completely determine whether or not hey will become involved in a christian activity. some will not lead a prayer meeting unless they feel they can pray an eloquent prayer.
many are influenced almost entirely by their emotions. they give way to their feelings as if
THEY FEEL they were UNDER NO OBLIGATION TO DUTY (note - obedience to the Bible) UNLESS URGED ON BY SOME STRONG EMOTION. they will be VERY ZEALOUS IN THEIR BELIEFS WHEN THEIR EMOTIONS ARE WARM AND LIVELY, but they WILL NOT ACT OUT THEIR FAITH, CONSISTENTLY CARRYING IT INTO EVERY CONCERN OF LIFE. they are religious only when they are impelled by a gush of feeling.
THIS IS NOT TRUE RELIGION.
young convert shoudl be carefully taught that when a task needs to be done, they are to do it. however dull your feelings may be, if duty calls, do it! do not wait for feeling, just do it! most likely the very emotions you are waiting for will surface when you begin to do your duty.
if the duty is prayer, for instance, anyou do not have the right feelings, do not wait for emotions before you pray. pray and 'open
272one of the first things young converts should be taught is to distinguish between emotion and principle in christianity. fix these words in your mind;
DISTINGUISH BETWEEN EMOTION AND PRINCIPLE.
emotion is the state of mind of which we are conscious and that we call feeling. it is an involuntary state of mind that arise under certain circumstances or certain influences. there may be intense feelings or tranquility, or feelings may disappear entirely. principle is the voluntary decision of the mid, the firm determination to fulfill duty and to obey the will of God, by which a christian should always be governed.
when a man decides to obey god because it is right, that is PRINCIPLE. whether he feels any lively religious emotions at the time or not, he will do his duty cheerfully, readily and heartily. this is acting out of principle and not emotion.
many young converts have mistaken views on this subject. they let their feelings completely determine whether or not hey will become involved in a christian activity. some will not lead a prayer meeting unless they feel they can pray an eloquent prayer.
many are influenced almost entirely by their emotions. they give way to their feelings as if
THEY FEEL they were UNDER NO OBLIGATION TO DUTY (note - obedience to the Bible) UNLESS URGED ON BY SOME STRONG EMOTION. they will be VERY ZEALOUS IN THEIR BELIEFS WHEN THEIR EMOTIONS ARE WARM AND LIVELY, but they WILL NOT ACT OUT THEIR FAITH, CONSISTENTLY CARRYING IT INTO EVERY CONCERN OF LIFE. they are religious only when they are impelled by a gush of feeling.
THIS IS NOT TRUE RELIGION.
young convert shoudl be carefully taught that when a task needs to be done, they are to do it. however dull your feelings may be, if duty calls, do it! do not wait for feeling, just do it! most likely the very emotions you are waiting for will surface when you begin to do your duty.
if the duty is prayer, for instance, anyou do not have the right feelings, do not wait for emotions before you pray. pray and 'open
9.19.2016 ABSOLUTE SURRENDER by Andrew Murray
'and ben-hadad the king of syria gathered all his host together: and there were thity and two kings with him and horses and chariots: and he went up and besieged samaria and warred against it. and he sent messengers to ahab king of israel into the city and said unto him, thus saith ben-hadad,
thy silver and thy gold is mine;
thy wives also and thy children, even the goodliest, are ming.
and the king of israel answered and said,
My lord, O king, according to thy saying, I am thine and all that i have. I kings 20.1-4
what ben hadad asked was absolute surrender and what ahab gave was what was asked of him -
ABSOLUTE SURRENDER.
i want to use these words; 'my lord, O king, according to thy saying, I am thine and all that I have, as the words of absolute surrender with which every child of god ought to yield himself to his Father. we have heard it before, but we need to hear it very definitely - the condition of God's blessing is absolute surrender of all into His hands. Praise God! if our hearts are willing for that, there is no end to what God will do for us and to the blessing god will bestow.
Absolute surrender - let me tell you where i got
6those words. i used them myself often and you have heard them numberless times. but in scotland once i was in a company where we were taling about the condition of Christ's Church and what the great need of the Church and of believers is and there was in our company a godly worker who has much to do in training workers and i asked him what he would say was THE GREAT NEED OF THE CHURCH and the message that ought to be preached. he answered very quietly and simply and determinedly:
ABSOLUTE SURRENDER TO GOD IS THE ONE THING.
the words struck me as never before. and that man began to tell how, in the workers with whom he had to deal, he finds that if they are sound on that point, even though they be backward, they are willing to be taught and helped and they always improve; whereas others who are not sound there very often go back and leave the work. the condition for obtaining God's full blessing is absolute surrender to Him.
and now, i desire by God's grace to give to you this message - that your God in heaven answers the prayers which you have offered for blessing on yourselves and for blessing on those around you by this one demand:
are you willing to surrender yourselves absolutely into His hands?
what is our answer to be?
God knows there are hundreds of hearts who have said it and there are hundreds more who long to say it but hardly dare to do so. and there are hearts who have said it, but who have yet miserably failed and who feel themselves condemned because they did not find the secret of the power to live that life. may god have a word for all.
let me say, first of all, that God claims it from us.
GOD EXPECTS YOUR SURRENDER
yes, it has its foundation in the very nature of God. God cannot do otherwise. who is God? He is the Fountain of life, the only Source of existence and power and goodness, and throughout the universe there is nothing good by what God works. God has created the sun and the moon and the stars and the flowers and the trees and the grass and are they not all absolutely surrendered to God?
do they not allow god to work in them just what he pleases?
when God clothes the lily with its beauty, is it not yielded up, surrendered, given over to god as He works in it its beauty?
and God's redeemed children, oh, can you think that god can work His work if there is only half or a part of them surrendered?
God cannot do it.
God is life and love and blessing and power and infinite beauty
and God delights to communicate Himself to every child who is prepared to receive Him;
but ah! this one lack of absolute surrender is just the thing that hinders God
and now He comes, and as God, He claims it.
you know in daily life what absolute surrender is. you know that everything has to be given up to its special, definite object and service.
i have a pen in my pocket and that pen is absolutely surrendered to the one work of writing
and that pen must be absolutely surrendered to my hand if i am to write properly with it.
if another holds it partly, i cannot write properly.
this coat is absolutely given up to me to cover my body.
this building is entirely given up to religious services.
and now, do you expect that in
8 you immortal being, in the divine nature that you have received by regeneration,
God can work His work, every day and every hour,
unless you are entirely given up to Him? God cannot.
the temple of solomon was absolutely surrendered to God when it was dedicated to Him.
and every one of us is a temple of God,
in which god will dwell and work mightily on one condition -
absolute surrender to Him. God claims it,
God is worthy of it
and without it God cannot work His blessed work in us.
God not only claims it, but God will work it Himself.
i am sure there is many a heart that says: 'ah, but that absolute surrender implies so much! someone says: 'Oh, i have passed through so much trial and suffering and there is so much of the self life still remaining and i dare not face the entire giving of it up, because i know it will cause so much trouble and agony.
alas! alas! that God's children have such thoughts of Him, such cruel thoughts.
Oh, i come to you with a messge, fearul and anxious one.
God does not ask you to give the perfect surrender in your strength or by the power of your will;
God is willing to work it in you.
do we not read: 'it is God that worketh in us, both to will and to do of his good pleasure?
and that is what we should seek for - to go on our faces before God,
until our hearts learn to believer that the everlasting god Himself will come
to turn out what is wrong,
to conquer what is evil
and to work what is well plasing in His blessed sight.
God Himself will work it in you.
9 look at the men in the Old Testament, like abraham.
do you think it was by accident that god found that man,
the father of the faithful and the Frioend of God
and that it was abraham himslf, apart from God,
who had such faith and such obedience and such devotion?
you know it is not so.
God raised him up and prepared him as an instrument for His glory.
did not God say to pharaoh: 'for this cause have i raised thee up, for to show in thee My power?
and if God said that of him, will not god say it far more of every child of His?
Oh, i want to encourage you
and I want you to CAST AWAY every fear.
come with that feeble desire;
and if there is the fear which says:
Oh, my desire is not strong enough,
i am not willing for everything that may come,
i do not feel bold enough to say I CAN CONQUER EVERYTHING
- I pay you, learn to know and trust your God now.
say: my God, I am willing that Thou shouldst make me willing.
if there is anything holding you back or any sacrifice you are afraid of making,
come to God now and prove how gracious your God is
AND BE NOT AFRAID THAT HE WILL COMMAND FROM YOU WHAT HE WILL NOT
BESTOW.
God comes and offers to work this absolute surrender in you.
all these searchings and hungerings and longings that are in your heart,
I tell you they are the drawings of the divine magnet, Christ Jesus.
He lived a life of absolute surrender,
He has possession of you;
He is living in your heart by His Holy Spirit.
you have hindered and hindered Him terribly,
but He desires to help you to get hold of Him ENTIRELY.
and He comes and draws you now by
10 His message and words.
will you not come and trust God to work in you that absolute surrender to Himself?
Yes, blessed by God, He can do it and He will do it.
God not only claims it and works it, but God accepts it when we bring it to Him.
God works it in the secret of our heart,
God urges us by the hidden power of His Holy Spirit to come and speak it out
and we have to bring and to yield to Him that absolute surrende,
it ma, as far as your feelings or your consciousness go,
be a thing of great imperfection
and you may doubt and hesitate and say:
'Is it absolute"
but, oh, remember there was once a man to whom Christ had said:
'if thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.
and his heart was afraid and he cried out:
'Lord, i believe, help thou mine unbelief.
tha was a faith that triumphed over the devil, and the evil spirit was cast out.
and if you come and say: 'Lord, I yield myself in abslute surrender to my God,'
even though it be with a trembling heart and with the consciousness:
'I do not feel the power,
I do not feel the determination,
I do not feel the assurance,
it will succeed.
Be not afraid,
but Come just as you are
and even in the midst of your trembling the power of the Holy Ghost will work.
11have you never yet learned the lesson that
the Holy Ghost works with mighty power,
while on the human side everything appears feeble?
look at the Lord Jesus Christ in Gethsemane.
we read that He, 'through the eternal Spirit', offered Himself a sacrifice unto God.
the Almighty Spirit of God was enabling Him to do it.
and yet what agony and fear and exceeding sorrow came over Him,
and how He prayed!
externally, you can see no sign of the might power of the Spirit, but the Spirit of God was there.
and even so, while you are feeble and fighting and trembling,
in faith in the hidden work of God's Spirit do not fear, but yield yourself.
and when you do yield yourself in absolute surrender,
let it be in the faith that God does now accept of it.
that is the great point and that is what we so often miss -
that believers should be thus occupied with God in this matter of surrender.
i pray you, BE OCCUPIED WITH GOD.
we want to get help, every one of us,
so that in our daily life god shall be clearer to us,
God shall have the right place and be 'all in all'.
and if we are to have that through life,
let us begin now and LOOK AWAY FROM OURSELVES
and look up to God.
let each believe -while I, a poor worm on earth and a trembling child of God, full of failure and sin and fear, bow here,
and no one knows what passes through my heart
and while i in simplicity say ,
O GOD, I ACCEPT THY TERMS;
I have pleaded for blessing on myself and others,
I have accepted Thy terms of absolute surrender-
while your heart says that in deep silence,
remember there i a God present that takes not of it,
and writes it down in His book
and there is a God present who at that very moment
12 takes possession of you.
you may not feel it,
you may not realize it,
but God takes possession if you will trust Him.
God not only claims it and works it and accepts it when I bring it,
but God maintains it.
that is the great difficulty with many.
people say: 'I have often been stirred at a meeting or at a convention and i have consecrated myself to god, but it has passed away. I know it may last for a week or for a month, but away it fades and after a time it is all gone.
but listen! it is because you do not believe what I am now going to tell you and remind you of.
when God has begun the work of absolute surrender in you
and when Go has accepted your surrender,
then God has accepted your surrender,
then God holds Himself bound to care for it and to keep it.
Will you believe that?
in this matter of surrender thaere are two:
God and I
- I A WORM,
God the everlasting and omnipotent Jehovah. w
Worm, will you be afraid to trust yourself to this might God now?
God is willing.
do you not believer that He can keep you continually, day by day and moment by moment?
moment by moment I'm kept in His lov;
moment by moment I've life from above.
if God allows the sun to shine upon you moment by moment, without intermission,
will not God let His life shine upon you every moment?
and why have you not experienced it?
13 because you have not trusted God for it and you do not surrender yourself absolutely to God in that trust.
a life of absolute surrender has its difficulties. i do not deny that. yes, it has something far more than difficulties: it is a life that with men is absolutely impossible. but by the grace of God, by the power of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, it is a life to which we are destined and a life that is possible for us, praise God! let us believe that God will maintain it.
some of you have read the words of that aged saint who, on his 90th birthday, told of all God's goodness to him - i mean George Muller. what did he say he believed to be the secret of his happiness and of all the blessing which God had given him? he said he believed there were 2 reasons. the one was that he had been enabled by grace to maintain a good conscience before God day by day; the other was, that he was a lover of God's Word. Ah, yes,
a good conscience is complete obedience to God day by day
and fellowship with God every day in His Word, and prayer -
that is a life of absolute surrender.
such a life has 2 sides - on the one side, absolute surrender to work what God wants you to do:
on the other side, to let God work what He wants to do.
first, to do what God wants you to do.
GIVE UP yourselves absolutely to the will of God.
you know something of that will; not enough, far from all.
but say absolutely to the Lord God;
'BY THY GRACE I DESIRE TO DO THY WILL IN EVERYTHING,
EVERY MOMENT OF EVERY DAY'.
14 say, 'Lord God, not a movement of my temper but for Thy glory,
not an affection of love of hate in my heart but for Thy glory and according to Thy blessed will.
someone says: do you think that possible?
I ask, what has God promised you and what can god do to fill a vessel absolutely surrendered to Him? Oh, God wants to bless you in a way beyond what you expect. from the beginning, ear hath not heard, neither hath the eye seen, what God hath prepared for them that wait for Him. God has prepared unheard-of-things, blessings much more wonderful than you can imagine, more mighty than you can conceive. they are diving blessings. OH, SAY NOW:
'I GIVE MYSELF ABSOLUTELY TO GOD, TO HIS WILL, TO DO ONLY WHAT GOD WANTS.
and, on the other side, come and say: 'I GIVE MYSELF ABSOLUTELY TO GOD, TO LET HIM WORK IN ME TO WILL AND TO DO OF HIS GOOD PLEASURE, AS HE HAS PROMISED TO DO.
Yes, the living God wants to work in His children in a way that we cannot understand, but that God's Word has revealed and He wants to work in us every moment of the day. God is willing to maintain our life. only let our absolute surrender be one of simple, childlike and unbounded trust.
this absolute surrender to God will wonderfully bless.
15 what Ahab said to his enemy, King Benhadad -
'MY LORD, O KING, ACCORDING TO THY WORD I AM THINE AND ALL THAT I HAVE
shall we not say to our god and loving Father? if we do say it, God's blessing will come upon us. God wants us to be separate from the world; we are called to come out from the world that hates God. come out for God, and say, 'LORD, ANYTHING FOR THEE. if you say that with prayer and speak that into God's ear, He will accept it and He will teach you what it means.
i say again, God will bless you. you have been praying for blessing. but do remember, there must be absolute surrender. at every tea table you see it. why is tea poured into that cup? because it is empty and given up for the tea. but put ink, or vinegar or wine into it and will they pour the tea into the vessel? and can God fill you, can God bless you if you are not absolutely surrendered to Him? He cannot. let us believe God has wonderful blessings for us, if we will but stand up for God and say, be it with a trembling will, yet with a believing heart:
OH GOD, I ACCEPT THY DEMANDS.
I AM THINE AND ALL THAT I HAVE.
ABSOLUTE SURRENDER IS WHAT MY SOUL YIELDS TO THEE BY DIVINE GRACE.
you may not have such strong and clear feelings of deliverances as you would desire to have, but humble yourselves in His sight and acknowledge that you have grieved the Holy Spirit by your self-will, self-confidence and self-effort bow humbly before Him in the confession of that and ask him to break the heart and to bring you into the dust before Him. then, as you bow before Him, just accept God's teaching that in your flesh 'there dwelleth no good
16 thing, and that nothing will help you except another life which must come in. you must deny self once for all. denying self must every moment be the power of your life, and then Christ will come in and take possession of you.
when was peter delivered? when was the change accomplished? the change began with peter weeping and the Holy Ghost came down and filled his heart.
God the Father loves to give us the power of the Spirit. we have the Spirit of God dwelling within us. we come to God confessing that and praising God for it and yet confessing how we have grieved the Spirit. and then we bow our knees to the Father to ask that He would strengthen us with all might by the Spirit in the inner man and that He would fill su with His might power. and as the Spirit reveals Christ to us, Christ comes to live in our hearts forever and the self-life is cast out.
let us bow before God in humility and in that humility confess before Him the state of the whole church. no words can tell the sad state of the Church of Christ on earth. i wish i had words to speak what i sometimes feel about it. just think of the christians around you. i do not speak of nominal christians or of professing christians, but i speak of hundreds and thousands of hones, earnest christians who are not living a life in the power of God or to His glory. so little power, so little devotion or consecration to God, so little perception of the truth that a christian is a man utterly surrendered to God's will! Oh, we want to confess the sins of God's people around us and to humble ourselves
17 we are members of that sickly body and the sickliness of the body will hinder us and break us down, unless we come to God and in confession separate ourselves from partnership with worldliness, with coldness toward each other, unless we give up ourselves to be entirely and wholly for God.
how much christian work is being done in the spirit of the flesh and in the power of self! how much work, day by day, in which human energy - our will and our thoughts about the work = is continually manifested and in which there is but little of waiting upon God and upon the power of the Holy Ghost! let us make confession. but as we confess the state of the Church and the feebleness and sinfulness of work for god among us, let us come back to ourselves. who is there who truly longs to be delivered from the power of the self-life, who truly acknowledges that it is the power of self and the flesh and who is willing to cast all at the feet of Christ? there is deliverance.
i heard of one who had been an earnest christian, and who spoke about the 'cruel' thought of separation and death. but you do not think that, do your? what are we to think of separation and death? this: death was the path to glory for Christ. for the joy set before Him H endured the cross. the cross was the birthplace of His everlasting glory. do you love Christ? do you long to be in Christ and not LIKE Him? let death be to you the most desirable thing on earth - death to self and fellowship with Christ. separation - do you think it a hard thing to be called to be entirely free from the world and by that
18 separation to be united to God and His love, by separation to become prepared for living and walking with God every day? surely one ought to say:
'ANYTHING TO BRING ME TO SEPARATION, TO DEATH, FOR A LIFE OF FULL FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD AND CHRIST.
come and cast this self life and flesh life at the feet of Jesus. then trust Him. do not worry yourselves with trying to understand all about it, but come in the living faith that Christ will come into you with the power of His death and the power of His life; and then the Holy Spirit will bring the whole Christ -Christ crucified and risen and living in glory - into your heart.
THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT IS LOVE
19 I want to look at the fact of a life filled with the Holy Spirit more from the practical side and to show how this life will show itself in our daily walk and conduct.
under the Old Testament you know the Holy Spirit often came upn men as a divine Spirit of revelation to reveal the mysteries of God or for power to do the work of God. but He did not then dwell in them. now many just want the Old Testament gift of power for work, but know very little of the New Testament gift of the indwelling Spirit, animating and renewing the whole life. when God gives the Holy Spirit, His great object is the formation of a holy character. it is a gift of a holy mind and spiritual disposition and what we need above everything else, is to say:
I MUST HAVE THE HOLY SPIRIT SANCTIFYING MY WHOLE INNER LIFE IF I AM REALLY TO LIVE FOR GOD'S GLORY.
you might say that when Christ promised the Spirit to the disciples. he did so that they might have power to be witnesses. true, but then they received the Holy Ghost in such heavenly power and reality that He took possession of their whole being at once and so fitted them as holy men for doing the work with power as they had to do it. Christ spoke of
20 power to the disciples, but it was the Spirit filling their whole being that worked the power.
I wish now to dwell upon the passage found in Galatians 5.22:
'the fruit of the Spirit is love.
we read that 'Love is the fulfilling of the law, and my desire is to speak on love as a fruit of the Spirit with a twofold object. one is that this word may be a searchlight in our hearts and give us a test my which to try all our thoughts about the Holy spirit and all our experience of the holy life. let us try ourselves by this word. has this been our daily habit, to seek the being filled with the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of love? 'the fruit of the Spirit is love. has it been our experience that the more we have of the Holy Spirit the more loving we become? in claiming the Holy Spirit we should make this the first object of our expectation. The Holy Spirit comes as a Spirit of love.
oh, if this were true in the Church of Christ how different her state would be! may God help us to get hold of this simple, heavenly truth that the fruit of the Spirit is a love which appears in the live and that just as the Holy Spirit gets real possession of the life, the heart will be filled with real, divine, universal love.
one of the great causes why God cannot bless His Church is the WANT OF LOVE. when the body is divided, there cannot be strength. in the time of their great religious wars, when holland stood out so nobly against spain, one of their mottoes was: 'unity gives strength'. it is only when God's people stand as one body, one before God in the fellowship of love.
21 one toward another in deep affection, one before the world in a love that the world can see - it is only then that they will have power to secure the blessing which they ask of God. remember that if a vessel that ought to be one whole is cracked into many pieces, it cannot be filled. you can take a potsherd, one part of a vessel and dip out a little water into that, but if you want the vessel full, the vessel must be whole. that is literally true of Christ's Church, and if there is one thing we must pray for still, it is this: Lord, melt us together into one by the power of the Holy Spirit; let the Holy Spirit, who at pentecost mad them all of one heart and one soul, do His blessed work among us. praise God, we can love each other in a divine love, for 'the fruit of the Spirit is love. give yourselves up to love and the Holy Spirit will come; receive the Spirit and He will teach you to love more.
now, why is it that the fruit of the Spirit is love?
because God IS LOVE.
and what does that mean?
it is the very nature and being of God to delight in communicating Himself.
God has no selfishness,
God keeps nothing to Himself.
God's nature is to be always giving.
in the sun and the moon and the stars, in every flower you see it, in every bird in the air, in every fish in the sea. God communicates life to His creatures.
and the angels around His throne, the seraphim and cherubim who are flames of fire - whence have they their glory? it is because
22 God is love and He imparts to them of His brightness and His blessedness. and we, His redeemed children - God delights to pour His love into us. and why? because, as i said, God keeps nothing for Himself. from eternity God had His only begotten Son and the Father gave Him all things and nothing that God had was dept back. 'God is love.
why is that so? that was the one great need of mankind, that was the thing which Christ's redemption came to accomplish: TO RESTORE LOVE TO THIS WORLD.
when man sinned, why was it that he sinned?
selfishness triumphed - he sought self instead of God. and just look! adam at once begins to accuse the woman of having led him astray. love to God had gone, love to man was lost. look again: of the first 2 children of adam the one becomes a murderer of his brother.
23 does not that teach us that sin had robbed the world of love? Ah! what a proof the history of the world has been of love having been lost! there may have been beautiful examples of love even among the heathen, but only as a little remnant of what was lost. one of the worst things sin did for man was to make him selfish, for selfishness cannot love.
the Lord Jesus Christ came down from heaven as the Son of God's love. 'God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. God's Son came to show what love is and He lived a life of love here upon earth in fellowship with His disciples, in compassion over the poor and miserable, in love even to His enemies, and He died the death of love. and when He went to heaven, whom did He send down? The Spirit of love, to come and banish selfishness and envy and pride and bring the love of God into the hearts of men. the fruit of the Spirit is love.
and what was the preparation for the promise of the Holy Spirit? you know that promise as found in the 14th chapter of John's gospel. but remember what precedes in the 13th chapter. before Christ promised the Holy Spirit, He gave a new commandment and about that new commandment He said wonderful things. one thing was: 'even as I have loved you, so love ye one another. to them His dying love was to be the only law of their conduct and intercourse with each other. what a message to those fishermen, to those men full of pride and selfishness! learn to love each other, said Christ, as I have loved you. and by the grace of God they,
24 did it. when pentecost came, they were of one heart and one soul. Christ did it for them.
and now He calls us to dwell and to walk in love. he demands that though a man hate you, still you love him. true love cannot be conquered by anything in heaven or upon the earth. the more hatred there is, the more love triumphs through it all and shows its true nature. this is the love that Christ commanded His disciples to exercise.
what more did He say? 'by this shall all men know that ye are My diciples, if ye have love one to another.
you all know what it is to wear a badge. and Christ said to His disciples in effect: 'I give you a badge and that badge is love. that is to be your mark, it is the only thing in heaven or on earth by which men can know me.
do we not begin to fear that love has fled from the earth? that if we were to ask the world: 'haveyou seen us wear the badge of love? the world would say: 'No; what we have heard of the church of Christ is that there is not a place where there is no quarreling and separation. let us ask god with one heart that we may wear the badge of Jesus' love. God is able to give it.
the fruit of the Spirit is love. why? because nothing but love can expel and conquer our selfishness.
self is the great curse, whether in its relation toGod or to our fellow men in general or to fellow christians,
thy silver and thy gold is mine;
thy wives also and thy children, even the goodliest, are ming.
and the king of israel answered and said,
My lord, O king, according to thy saying, I am thine and all that i have. I kings 20.1-4
what ben hadad asked was absolute surrender and what ahab gave was what was asked of him -
ABSOLUTE SURRENDER.
i want to use these words; 'my lord, O king, according to thy saying, I am thine and all that I have, as the words of absolute surrender with which every child of god ought to yield himself to his Father. we have heard it before, but we need to hear it very definitely - the condition of God's blessing is absolute surrender of all into His hands. Praise God! if our hearts are willing for that, there is no end to what God will do for us and to the blessing god will bestow.
Absolute surrender - let me tell you where i got
6those words. i used them myself often and you have heard them numberless times. but in scotland once i was in a company where we were taling about the condition of Christ's Church and what the great need of the Church and of believers is and there was in our company a godly worker who has much to do in training workers and i asked him what he would say was THE GREAT NEED OF THE CHURCH and the message that ought to be preached. he answered very quietly and simply and determinedly:
ABSOLUTE SURRENDER TO GOD IS THE ONE THING.
the words struck me as never before. and that man began to tell how, in the workers with whom he had to deal, he finds that if they are sound on that point, even though they be backward, they are willing to be taught and helped and they always improve; whereas others who are not sound there very often go back and leave the work. the condition for obtaining God's full blessing is absolute surrender to Him.
and now, i desire by God's grace to give to you this message - that your God in heaven answers the prayers which you have offered for blessing on yourselves and for blessing on those around you by this one demand:
are you willing to surrender yourselves absolutely into His hands?
what is our answer to be?
God knows there are hundreds of hearts who have said it and there are hundreds more who long to say it but hardly dare to do so. and there are hearts who have said it, but who have yet miserably failed and who feel themselves condemned because they did not find the secret of the power to live that life. may god have a word for all.
let me say, first of all, that God claims it from us.
GOD EXPECTS YOUR SURRENDER
yes, it has its foundation in the very nature of God. God cannot do otherwise. who is God? He is the Fountain of life, the only Source of existence and power and goodness, and throughout the universe there is nothing good by what God works. God has created the sun and the moon and the stars and the flowers and the trees and the grass and are they not all absolutely surrendered to God?
do they not allow god to work in them just what he pleases?
when God clothes the lily with its beauty, is it not yielded up, surrendered, given over to god as He works in it its beauty?
and God's redeemed children, oh, can you think that god can work His work if there is only half or a part of them surrendered?
God cannot do it.
God is life and love and blessing and power and infinite beauty
and God delights to communicate Himself to every child who is prepared to receive Him;
but ah! this one lack of absolute surrender is just the thing that hinders God
and now He comes, and as God, He claims it.
you know in daily life what absolute surrender is. you know that everything has to be given up to its special, definite object and service.
i have a pen in my pocket and that pen is absolutely surrendered to the one work of writing
and that pen must be absolutely surrendered to my hand if i am to write properly with it.
if another holds it partly, i cannot write properly.
this coat is absolutely given up to me to cover my body.
this building is entirely given up to religious services.
and now, do you expect that in
8 you immortal being, in the divine nature that you have received by regeneration,
God can work His work, every day and every hour,
unless you are entirely given up to Him? God cannot.
the temple of solomon was absolutely surrendered to God when it was dedicated to Him.
and every one of us is a temple of God,
in which god will dwell and work mightily on one condition -
absolute surrender to Him. God claims it,
God is worthy of it
and without it God cannot work His blessed work in us.
God not only claims it, but God will work it Himself.
i am sure there is many a heart that says: 'ah, but that absolute surrender implies so much! someone says: 'Oh, i have passed through so much trial and suffering and there is so much of the self life still remaining and i dare not face the entire giving of it up, because i know it will cause so much trouble and agony.
alas! alas! that God's children have such thoughts of Him, such cruel thoughts.
Oh, i come to you with a messge, fearul and anxious one.
God does not ask you to give the perfect surrender in your strength or by the power of your will;
God is willing to work it in you.
do we not read: 'it is God that worketh in us, both to will and to do of his good pleasure?
and that is what we should seek for - to go on our faces before God,
until our hearts learn to believer that the everlasting god Himself will come
to turn out what is wrong,
to conquer what is evil
and to work what is well plasing in His blessed sight.
God Himself will work it in you.
9 look at the men in the Old Testament, like abraham.
do you think it was by accident that god found that man,
the father of the faithful and the Frioend of God
and that it was abraham himslf, apart from God,
who had such faith and such obedience and such devotion?
you know it is not so.
God raised him up and prepared him as an instrument for His glory.
did not God say to pharaoh: 'for this cause have i raised thee up, for to show in thee My power?
and if God said that of him, will not god say it far more of every child of His?
Oh, i want to encourage you
and I want you to CAST AWAY every fear.
come with that feeble desire;
and if there is the fear which says:
Oh, my desire is not strong enough,
i am not willing for everything that may come,
i do not feel bold enough to say I CAN CONQUER EVERYTHING
- I pay you, learn to know and trust your God now.
say: my God, I am willing that Thou shouldst make me willing.
if there is anything holding you back or any sacrifice you are afraid of making,
come to God now and prove how gracious your God is
AND BE NOT AFRAID THAT HE WILL COMMAND FROM YOU WHAT HE WILL NOT
BESTOW.
God comes and offers to work this absolute surrender in you.
all these searchings and hungerings and longings that are in your heart,
I tell you they are the drawings of the divine magnet, Christ Jesus.
He lived a life of absolute surrender,
He has possession of you;
He is living in your heart by His Holy Spirit.
you have hindered and hindered Him terribly,
but He desires to help you to get hold of Him ENTIRELY.
and He comes and draws you now by
10 His message and words.
will you not come and trust God to work in you that absolute surrender to Himself?
Yes, blessed by God, He can do it and He will do it.
God not only claims it and works it, but God accepts it when we bring it to Him.
God works it in the secret of our heart,
God urges us by the hidden power of His Holy Spirit to come and speak it out
and we have to bring and to yield to Him that absolute surrende,
it ma, as far as your feelings or your consciousness go,
be a thing of great imperfection
and you may doubt and hesitate and say:
'Is it absolute"
but, oh, remember there was once a man to whom Christ had said:
'if thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.
and his heart was afraid and he cried out:
'Lord, i believe, help thou mine unbelief.
tha was a faith that triumphed over the devil, and the evil spirit was cast out.
and if you come and say: 'Lord, I yield myself in abslute surrender to my God,'
even though it be with a trembling heart and with the consciousness:
'I do not feel the power,
I do not feel the determination,
I do not feel the assurance,
it will succeed.
Be not afraid,
but Come just as you are
and even in the midst of your trembling the power of the Holy Ghost will work.
11have you never yet learned the lesson that
the Holy Ghost works with mighty power,
while on the human side everything appears feeble?
look at the Lord Jesus Christ in Gethsemane.
we read that He, 'through the eternal Spirit', offered Himself a sacrifice unto God.
the Almighty Spirit of God was enabling Him to do it.
and yet what agony and fear and exceeding sorrow came over Him,
and how He prayed!
externally, you can see no sign of the might power of the Spirit, but the Spirit of God was there.
and even so, while you are feeble and fighting and trembling,
in faith in the hidden work of God's Spirit do not fear, but yield yourself.
and when you do yield yourself in absolute surrender,
let it be in the faith that God does now accept of it.
that is the great point and that is what we so often miss -
that believers should be thus occupied with God in this matter of surrender.
i pray you, BE OCCUPIED WITH GOD.
we want to get help, every one of us,
so that in our daily life god shall be clearer to us,
God shall have the right place and be 'all in all'.
and if we are to have that through life,
let us begin now and LOOK AWAY FROM OURSELVES
and look up to God.
let each believe -while I, a poor worm on earth and a trembling child of God, full of failure and sin and fear, bow here,
and no one knows what passes through my heart
and while i in simplicity say ,
O GOD, I ACCEPT THY TERMS;
I have pleaded for blessing on myself and others,
I have accepted Thy terms of absolute surrender-
while your heart says that in deep silence,
remember there i a God present that takes not of it,
and writes it down in His book
and there is a God present who at that very moment
12 takes possession of you.
you may not feel it,
you may not realize it,
but God takes possession if you will trust Him.
God not only claims it and works it and accepts it when I bring it,
but God maintains it.
that is the great difficulty with many.
people say: 'I have often been stirred at a meeting or at a convention and i have consecrated myself to god, but it has passed away. I know it may last for a week or for a month, but away it fades and after a time it is all gone.
but listen! it is because you do not believe what I am now going to tell you and remind you of.
when God has begun the work of absolute surrender in you
and when Go has accepted your surrender,
then God has accepted your surrender,
then God holds Himself bound to care for it and to keep it.
Will you believe that?
in this matter of surrender thaere are two:
God and I
- I A WORM,
God the everlasting and omnipotent Jehovah. w
Worm, will you be afraid to trust yourself to this might God now?
God is willing.
do you not believer that He can keep you continually, day by day and moment by moment?
moment by moment I'm kept in His lov;
moment by moment I've life from above.
if God allows the sun to shine upon you moment by moment, without intermission,
will not God let His life shine upon you every moment?
and why have you not experienced it?
13 because you have not trusted God for it and you do not surrender yourself absolutely to God in that trust.
a life of absolute surrender has its difficulties. i do not deny that. yes, it has something far more than difficulties: it is a life that with men is absolutely impossible. but by the grace of God, by the power of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, it is a life to which we are destined and a life that is possible for us, praise God! let us believe that God will maintain it.
some of you have read the words of that aged saint who, on his 90th birthday, told of all God's goodness to him - i mean George Muller. what did he say he believed to be the secret of his happiness and of all the blessing which God had given him? he said he believed there were 2 reasons. the one was that he had been enabled by grace to maintain a good conscience before God day by day; the other was, that he was a lover of God's Word. Ah, yes,
a good conscience is complete obedience to God day by day
and fellowship with God every day in His Word, and prayer -
that is a life of absolute surrender.
such a life has 2 sides - on the one side, absolute surrender to work what God wants you to do:
on the other side, to let God work what He wants to do.
first, to do what God wants you to do.
GIVE UP yourselves absolutely to the will of God.
you know something of that will; not enough, far from all.
but say absolutely to the Lord God;
'BY THY GRACE I DESIRE TO DO THY WILL IN EVERYTHING,
EVERY MOMENT OF EVERY DAY'.
14 say, 'Lord God, not a movement of my temper but for Thy glory,
not an affection of love of hate in my heart but for Thy glory and according to Thy blessed will.
someone says: do you think that possible?
I ask, what has God promised you and what can god do to fill a vessel absolutely surrendered to Him? Oh, God wants to bless you in a way beyond what you expect. from the beginning, ear hath not heard, neither hath the eye seen, what God hath prepared for them that wait for Him. God has prepared unheard-of-things, blessings much more wonderful than you can imagine, more mighty than you can conceive. they are diving blessings. OH, SAY NOW:
'I GIVE MYSELF ABSOLUTELY TO GOD, TO HIS WILL, TO DO ONLY WHAT GOD WANTS.
and, on the other side, come and say: 'I GIVE MYSELF ABSOLUTELY TO GOD, TO LET HIM WORK IN ME TO WILL AND TO DO OF HIS GOOD PLEASURE, AS HE HAS PROMISED TO DO.
Yes, the living God wants to work in His children in a way that we cannot understand, but that God's Word has revealed and He wants to work in us every moment of the day. God is willing to maintain our life. only let our absolute surrender be one of simple, childlike and unbounded trust.
this absolute surrender to God will wonderfully bless.
15 what Ahab said to his enemy, King Benhadad -
'MY LORD, O KING, ACCORDING TO THY WORD I AM THINE AND ALL THAT I HAVE
shall we not say to our god and loving Father? if we do say it, God's blessing will come upon us. God wants us to be separate from the world; we are called to come out from the world that hates God. come out for God, and say, 'LORD, ANYTHING FOR THEE. if you say that with prayer and speak that into God's ear, He will accept it and He will teach you what it means.
i say again, God will bless you. you have been praying for blessing. but do remember, there must be absolute surrender. at every tea table you see it. why is tea poured into that cup? because it is empty and given up for the tea. but put ink, or vinegar or wine into it and will they pour the tea into the vessel? and can God fill you, can God bless you if you are not absolutely surrendered to Him? He cannot. let us believe God has wonderful blessings for us, if we will but stand up for God and say, be it with a trembling will, yet with a believing heart:
OH GOD, I ACCEPT THY DEMANDS.
I AM THINE AND ALL THAT I HAVE.
ABSOLUTE SURRENDER IS WHAT MY SOUL YIELDS TO THEE BY DIVINE GRACE.
you may not have such strong and clear feelings of deliverances as you would desire to have, but humble yourselves in His sight and acknowledge that you have grieved the Holy Spirit by your self-will, self-confidence and self-effort bow humbly before Him in the confession of that and ask him to break the heart and to bring you into the dust before Him. then, as you bow before Him, just accept God's teaching that in your flesh 'there dwelleth no good
16 thing, and that nothing will help you except another life which must come in. you must deny self once for all. denying self must every moment be the power of your life, and then Christ will come in and take possession of you.
when was peter delivered? when was the change accomplished? the change began with peter weeping and the Holy Ghost came down and filled his heart.
God the Father loves to give us the power of the Spirit. we have the Spirit of God dwelling within us. we come to God confessing that and praising God for it and yet confessing how we have grieved the Spirit. and then we bow our knees to the Father to ask that He would strengthen us with all might by the Spirit in the inner man and that He would fill su with His might power. and as the Spirit reveals Christ to us, Christ comes to live in our hearts forever and the self-life is cast out.
let us bow before God in humility and in that humility confess before Him the state of the whole church. no words can tell the sad state of the Church of Christ on earth. i wish i had words to speak what i sometimes feel about it. just think of the christians around you. i do not speak of nominal christians or of professing christians, but i speak of hundreds and thousands of hones, earnest christians who are not living a life in the power of God or to His glory. so little power, so little devotion or consecration to God, so little perception of the truth that a christian is a man utterly surrendered to God's will! Oh, we want to confess the sins of God's people around us and to humble ourselves
17 we are members of that sickly body and the sickliness of the body will hinder us and break us down, unless we come to God and in confession separate ourselves from partnership with worldliness, with coldness toward each other, unless we give up ourselves to be entirely and wholly for God.
how much christian work is being done in the spirit of the flesh and in the power of self! how much work, day by day, in which human energy - our will and our thoughts about the work = is continually manifested and in which there is but little of waiting upon God and upon the power of the Holy Ghost! let us make confession. but as we confess the state of the Church and the feebleness and sinfulness of work for god among us, let us come back to ourselves. who is there who truly longs to be delivered from the power of the self-life, who truly acknowledges that it is the power of self and the flesh and who is willing to cast all at the feet of Christ? there is deliverance.
i heard of one who had been an earnest christian, and who spoke about the 'cruel' thought of separation and death. but you do not think that, do your? what are we to think of separation and death? this: death was the path to glory for Christ. for the joy set before Him H endured the cross. the cross was the birthplace of His everlasting glory. do you love Christ? do you long to be in Christ and not LIKE Him? let death be to you the most desirable thing on earth - death to self and fellowship with Christ. separation - do you think it a hard thing to be called to be entirely free from the world and by that
18 separation to be united to God and His love, by separation to become prepared for living and walking with God every day? surely one ought to say:
'ANYTHING TO BRING ME TO SEPARATION, TO DEATH, FOR A LIFE OF FULL FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD AND CHRIST.
come and cast this self life and flesh life at the feet of Jesus. then trust Him. do not worry yourselves with trying to understand all about it, but come in the living faith that Christ will come into you with the power of His death and the power of His life; and then the Holy Spirit will bring the whole Christ -Christ crucified and risen and living in glory - into your heart.
THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT IS LOVE
19 I want to look at the fact of a life filled with the Holy Spirit more from the practical side and to show how this life will show itself in our daily walk and conduct.
under the Old Testament you know the Holy Spirit often came upn men as a divine Spirit of revelation to reveal the mysteries of God or for power to do the work of God. but He did not then dwell in them. now many just want the Old Testament gift of power for work, but know very little of the New Testament gift of the indwelling Spirit, animating and renewing the whole life. when God gives the Holy Spirit, His great object is the formation of a holy character. it is a gift of a holy mind and spiritual disposition and what we need above everything else, is to say:
I MUST HAVE THE HOLY SPIRIT SANCTIFYING MY WHOLE INNER LIFE IF I AM REALLY TO LIVE FOR GOD'S GLORY.
you might say that when Christ promised the Spirit to the disciples. he did so that they might have power to be witnesses. true, but then they received the Holy Ghost in such heavenly power and reality that He took possession of their whole being at once and so fitted them as holy men for doing the work with power as they had to do it. Christ spoke of
20 power to the disciples, but it was the Spirit filling their whole being that worked the power.
I wish now to dwell upon the passage found in Galatians 5.22:
'the fruit of the Spirit is love.
we read that 'Love is the fulfilling of the law, and my desire is to speak on love as a fruit of the Spirit with a twofold object. one is that this word may be a searchlight in our hearts and give us a test my which to try all our thoughts about the Holy spirit and all our experience of the holy life. let us try ourselves by this word. has this been our daily habit, to seek the being filled with the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of love? 'the fruit of the Spirit is love. has it been our experience that the more we have of the Holy Spirit the more loving we become? in claiming the Holy Spirit we should make this the first object of our expectation. The Holy Spirit comes as a Spirit of love.
oh, if this were true in the Church of Christ how different her state would be! may God help us to get hold of this simple, heavenly truth that the fruit of the Spirit is a love which appears in the live and that just as the Holy Spirit gets real possession of the life, the heart will be filled with real, divine, universal love.
one of the great causes why God cannot bless His Church is the WANT OF LOVE. when the body is divided, there cannot be strength. in the time of their great religious wars, when holland stood out so nobly against spain, one of their mottoes was: 'unity gives strength'. it is only when God's people stand as one body, one before God in the fellowship of love.
21 one toward another in deep affection, one before the world in a love that the world can see - it is only then that they will have power to secure the blessing which they ask of God. remember that if a vessel that ought to be one whole is cracked into many pieces, it cannot be filled. you can take a potsherd, one part of a vessel and dip out a little water into that, but if you want the vessel full, the vessel must be whole. that is literally true of Christ's Church, and if there is one thing we must pray for still, it is this: Lord, melt us together into one by the power of the Holy Spirit; let the Holy Spirit, who at pentecost mad them all of one heart and one soul, do His blessed work among us. praise God, we can love each other in a divine love, for 'the fruit of the Spirit is love. give yourselves up to love and the Holy Spirit will come; receive the Spirit and He will teach you to love more.
now, why is it that the fruit of the Spirit is love?
because God IS LOVE.
and what does that mean?
it is the very nature and being of God to delight in communicating Himself.
God has no selfishness,
God keeps nothing to Himself.
God's nature is to be always giving.
in the sun and the moon and the stars, in every flower you see it, in every bird in the air, in every fish in the sea. God communicates life to His creatures.
and the angels around His throne, the seraphim and cherubim who are flames of fire - whence have they their glory? it is because
22 God is love and He imparts to them of His brightness and His blessedness. and we, His redeemed children - God delights to pour His love into us. and why? because, as i said, God keeps nothing for Himself. from eternity God had His only begotten Son and the Father gave Him all things and nothing that God had was dept back. 'God is love.
why is that so? that was the one great need of mankind, that was the thing which Christ's redemption came to accomplish: TO RESTORE LOVE TO THIS WORLD.
when man sinned, why was it that he sinned?
selfishness triumphed - he sought self instead of God. and just look! adam at once begins to accuse the woman of having led him astray. love to God had gone, love to man was lost. look again: of the first 2 children of adam the one becomes a murderer of his brother.
23 does not that teach us that sin had robbed the world of love? Ah! what a proof the history of the world has been of love having been lost! there may have been beautiful examples of love even among the heathen, but only as a little remnant of what was lost. one of the worst things sin did for man was to make him selfish, for selfishness cannot love.
the Lord Jesus Christ came down from heaven as the Son of God's love. 'God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. God's Son came to show what love is and He lived a life of love here upon earth in fellowship with His disciples, in compassion over the poor and miserable, in love even to His enemies, and He died the death of love. and when He went to heaven, whom did He send down? The Spirit of love, to come and banish selfishness and envy and pride and bring the love of God into the hearts of men. the fruit of the Spirit is love.
and what was the preparation for the promise of the Holy Spirit? you know that promise as found in the 14th chapter of John's gospel. but remember what precedes in the 13th chapter. before Christ promised the Holy Spirit, He gave a new commandment and about that new commandment He said wonderful things. one thing was: 'even as I have loved you, so love ye one another. to them His dying love was to be the only law of their conduct and intercourse with each other. what a message to those fishermen, to those men full of pride and selfishness! learn to love each other, said Christ, as I have loved you. and by the grace of God they,
24 did it. when pentecost came, they were of one heart and one soul. Christ did it for them.
and now He calls us to dwell and to walk in love. he demands that though a man hate you, still you love him. true love cannot be conquered by anything in heaven or upon the earth. the more hatred there is, the more love triumphs through it all and shows its true nature. this is the love that Christ commanded His disciples to exercise.
what more did He say? 'by this shall all men know that ye are My diciples, if ye have love one to another.
you all know what it is to wear a badge. and Christ said to His disciples in effect: 'I give you a badge and that badge is love. that is to be your mark, it is the only thing in heaven or on earth by which men can know me.
do we not begin to fear that love has fled from the earth? that if we were to ask the world: 'haveyou seen us wear the badge of love? the world would say: 'No; what we have heard of the church of Christ is that there is not a place where there is no quarreling and separation. let us ask god with one heart that we may wear the badge of Jesus' love. God is able to give it.
the fruit of the Spirit is love. why? because nothing but love can expel and conquer our selfishness.
self is the great curse, whether in its relation toGod or to our fellow men in general or to fellow christians,
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